


So no one told you life was gonna be this way

by kazu2606



Category: Red Velvet (K-pop Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, OfficeAU, seulgi centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-03-13 12:47:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13570881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazu2606/pseuds/kazu2606
Summary: A glimpse into the life of a young, working adult





	1. Chapter 1

 

“What kind of jobs did you work? Were they fun?”

“..fun would not be the right word to describe my job.”

\---

Seulgi often wondered what it would be like if she had actually pursued her dreams of becoming a performer. It might have been more interesting, she thought. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have the voice for it. She could if she wanted to. But, alas, her parents were against the idea and she had failed the audition at a local talent show. She took it as a sign from above and buried that dream, taking up a normal desk job like everybody else.

Anything would have been more interesting than desk job she had at the moment. It wasn’t as though she had much to choose from either. Times were bad and companies were picky in their new hires - demanding years of work experience but wanting young employees at the same time. Hypocrites, she mumbled to herself while looking through an online job search portal. 

It took a while but she managed to find herself a job that paid decently and, from what she observed during her interview, had a good-enough office environment to work in. Her would-be boss also seemed like a nice-enough person during the interview, she decided working there might be quite the experience.

From what she gathered during her first few days at work, her company was a consultation company. They had quite an array of clients from various industries and their job was to provide them with suggestions on how to improve their management and operations. It seemed simple enough, or so she thought. 

One of her superiors, Taeyeon, gave Seulgi a quick briefing on their job and subsequently handed her a mountain of old case files to read through to prepare for her first fieldwork. Seulgi watched with envy as her colleagues left the office in teams to go on fieldworks while she was stuck at her desk reading day in and day out. At first it all seemed interesting, but even the most eager person would be bored after going through dozens of reports of similar nature.

After a month of studying old case files and complaining to her new friends, Seungwan and Joy, about being bored, she was assigned to go on a fieldwork with their resident ice queen, Jessica. The two had snickered and wished her good luck.

The task for that particular fieldwork was simple on Seulgi’s part. Her manager, Jessica, was going to be interviewing some of the client’s key personnels in order to pinpoint which part of the organisation needed to be improved while Seulgi was there to assist her - namely, to take down whatever was being said. Jessica had told her that the interview was called a risk assessment and the notes Seulgi took down would be used to draft a proposal that would be submitted to their client for consideration. 

Seulgi felt better after hearing the explanation, even if she did think that she was just a glorified secretary for that few days. Still, it was good to know that her work was important.

The interviews were as boring as Seulgi had imagined. The people they had been interviewing were mostly uncooperative and were only interested in boasting about how well their company was doing and how they did not understand why the higher ups had insisted on contracting some outsiders to assess their company’s performance. Ridiculous, one of them practically shouted to their faces.

Seulgi was taken aback and gasped audibly. Jessica shot her a look that said please calm down before turning back to him and explained. Things escalated quickly as he lost whatever patience he had left. He called his assistant to take his place, grumbled about having better things to do as he exited the discussion room their interview was held at.

“I’m so sorry about my boss. He has a very big ego and doesn’t like to be questioned,” his assistant apologised on his behalf. 

“It’s alright. We’ve seen worse, to be honest. This is nothing.” Jessica tried to remain professional and exchanged name cards with newest occupant of the room.

While the two of them had busied themselves with some idle conversation, Seulgi found herself staring quite shamelessly at the new arrival. Beautiful was not enough to describe the girl that had replaced the pompous man from before.

“I’m sorry, what?” Seulgi replied when she felt Jessica nudge her arm. 

“We’re about to begin. Do you need a break? You seem very out of it.” Jessica sent a subtle glare her way and Seulgi snapped out of whatever shock she had been in because of the girl’s good looks. The girl cleared her throat and averted her eyes, a grin was slowly forming on her face.

“No, I’m fine. I’m sorry. Please continue. Oh. Before that, I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name earlier. And your designation, please,” Seulgi blurted.

“My name is Irene Bae. I’m Mr Jung’s assistant manager. And you?”

“K-Kang Seulgi. I’m her assistant for the day.” Seulgi gave her an awkward smile. Ms Bae nodded and Jessica took it as her cue to begin.

***

If Jessica had asked if she was paying attention during Ms Bae’s interview, Seulgi would have admitted straight away that she wasn’t. Ms Bae was a distraction, a huge distraction - everything from her face to her voice and to that thing she did with her eyebrows when she spoke. 

Seulgi looked over the notes she had absentmindedly typed on her laptop and cringed at the amount of typos she saw. Red, squiggly lines decorated almost the entire page. Jessica glanced at the screen and shook her head.

“Make sure you tidy it up before sending it to me tonight, alright?” she patted Seulgi’s shoulder and stood up. “Will you be ok having lunch on your own? I’m meeting up with a friend. Can I count on you not to get lost and be back here by 2? Oh, you can leave your things here. It’s ok. Just grab your wallet and phone when you go for lunch.” 

“Oh, ok. Sure. I’ll be fine, no worries. Thank you.” Seulgi gave her an okay sign. Jessica nodded and left the room.

Seulgi gathered whatever she needed and closed the door behind her. Remembering the way they came into the maze-like office earlier, Seulgi found her way to the elevator. She fished out her phone from her pocket and started scrolling through her social media before somebody tapped her shoulder.

“Alone for lunch? Where’s Jessica?”

It was Ms Bae. The very distracting, very pretty, Ms Bae. Seulgi awkwardly smiled and pretended to read the directory on the wall next to the elevator door.

“Are you going to the cafeteria?”

“Huh? Oh yes. That’s the plan.”

“The food isn’t very good there though.” Ms Bae pursed her lips and her eyebrows furrowed. 

Seulgi swore she had never seen anybody that adorable in her life. 

Before she could string any coherent sentence together, Ms Bae asked, “Would you like to join me for lunch?” 

Seulgi’s eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline.

“Eh? I’m sorry. I mean, pardon? Come again?”

“Would you like to join me for lunch?”

Seulgi mutely nodded and that settled that.

\---

“A lunch date?”

“It was  _ not _ a lunch date.”

\---

Once they had gone passed the initial awkwardness of being newly acquainted, Seulgi realised that the two of them clicked very well. By the time their food had been served, Seulgi was no longer a bumbling mess and was able to speak casually with Ms Bae while trying to maintain a certain level of professionalism. As much as it felt like she was chatting with an old friend, Ms Bae was their client after all. Jessica would have taken off her head if she found out Seulgi had been unprofessional. She shuddered at the thought of facing Jessica's silent, icy wrath. 

However, whatever mask of professionalism Seulgi had tried so hard to maintain crumbled the moment Ms Bae had asked about her hobbies and soon Seulgi found herself rambling about what she loved best.

Irene looked at her lunch companion in amusement. Gone was the quiet, stuttering girl from before and, in her stead, replaced by somebody who was very passionate about her hobby - music - and was going on and on about how she was once inspired after watching one of Beyonce’s videos to be a performer. It then went on to a comparison of which album the singer had put out was her best work to date and how she was robbed of Album of the Year award every single time. Seulgi hit the table in frustration before she realised other patrons in the shop were starting to stare and immediately bowed to the general vicinity to apologise.

_ She’s adorable. _

Irene rested an elbow on the table and settled her chin on her palm, listening as Seulgi continued. It had been awhile since she has met with anybody who had that much passion about anything and had that much zest for life. Working in a corporate environment tend to suck the life out of people, something Irene had seen happen many times to her new colleagues. She could only hope that Seulgi won’t be affected by it.

They were only about half an hour into their lunch break but from what Irene had gathered in that short amount of time was that Seulgi seemed to be an outgoing person, easily loved by others and is utterly adorable. Irene also knew that she was staring quite a bit at the younger girl, not that Seulgi had noticed, yet. 

“Irene.” Ms Bae corrected Seulgi in the middle of one of her sentence.

“Sorry?”

“Please call me Irene. We’re not at work and it’s just us so there’s no need to be so formal. Right, Seulgi-ah?” Irene leaned in a little closer, surprising Seulgi, who immediately moved backwards in reflex. She allowed herself a triumphant smirk when she noticed Seulgi’s face had started to colour slightly.

It took Seulgi a few moments to compose herself. After taking a sip from her drink, Seulgi smiled at her lunch companion, ears bright red.

“Alright then. Irene. Where was I? Oh right..” 

Irene was more than happy to listen to whatever else Seulgi had to say about Beyonce.

\---

“So you kept talking?”

“...yes. You know how I get when music and Beyonce are involved.”

\---

If Jessica had thought Seulgi was in a good mood after lunch, she didn't ask about it either and she appreciated that. Seulgi was slowly growing fond of her manager despite being very intimidated by her. The icy demeanor and her higher post made it difficult for Seulgi to approach her, even if it was to ask about something work-related.

Jessica was always professional around them, Seulgi had only seen her laugh once since she joined the company. Taeyeon had whispered something to her during lunch and Jessica simply cracked up. It was refreshing to watch the stone cold face break into a grin and then into a full blown laugh. 

Seulgi wished that Taeyeon was with them at that moment because the atmosphere was tense and silent in the discussion room as their last interviewee left. Seulgi busied herself by tidying and editing the notes she had taken throughout the day. Jessica cleared her throat a little while later, breaking the silence.

“Seulgi..” 

“Y-yes?” Seulgi’s head shot up from her laptop.

“Seulgi..” Jessica sighed. “Can you keep your staring down to a minimal? Or do it subtly? I don’t want to hear any complains about this from Ms Bae or her superiors. We have to be professional, no matter how good looking the client is. This is our job and I hope I won't have to remind you again.”

Seulgi’s eyes went wide, face burning in embarrassment. Of course Jessica noticed. Heck, she was pretty sure Ire-Ms Bae had noticed, too. 

“I’m sorry, Jessica. It won’t happen again.” Seulgi apologised weakly.

“See to it that it doesn’t. Now let’s pack up. We’re done for the day. Send me the notes later before 9.”

Seulgi packed up in record speed and bolted out of the room to wait for Jessica at the elevator, only to bump into Ms Bae who was also on her way out.

“Seulgi! Going home? Wait, why is your face so red? Are you ok?” Ms Bae was about to place her hand on her forehead but Seulgi saw it coming and avoided it like a pro, skirting around Ms Bae and headed straight for the stairwell. 

“Please tell Jessica I’ll meet her downstairs!!” Seulgi’s voice echoed as she practically ran down the stairs, leaving behind a very confused Ms Bae.

_ What happened to the adorable Seulgi from lunch? _

Jessica shook her head and sighed when Ms Bae conveyed the message. She assured the assistant manager that her colleague was fine, probably just over excited about going home after a long day of interviewing people. Ms Bae seemed to have believed the excused and didn’t ask any more questions.

When Jessica and Ms Bae stepped out of the elevator, they were greeted by the sight of Seulgi seated on one of the sofas in the waiting area, looking much calmer than she did a few minutes ago.

_ The run down the stairs must have done something to her. _

Irene mused as she bid Jessica goodbye and went on her way, giving Seulgi a small wave before disappearing through the main entrance. Seulgi waved back and when she saw that Jessica was walking towards her, she gulped.

“Ready to go?”

“Y-yes.”

“You feeling ok?” 

“Yes.”

“The trip down the stairs helped?”

“Surprisingly, it did.”

“Good. Come on.” Jessica nudged her head. “We don’t want to be caught in traffic.”

***


	2. Chapter 2

 

The days that followed were slightly more relaxed in comparison to the very first. Seulgi was becoming more comfortable with Jessica and it made it easier for them to be seated quietly together in the discussion room they had been using. Jessica would sometimes throw random questions at her just to see if Seulgi was paying attention and also to teach Seulgi how to think like a consultant that she would be.

Seulgi managed to bullshit her way through with what little knowledge she had retained from her lectures and with some common sense. Jessica seemed to be satisfied with her answers and gave her an almost-nod of approval. Seulgi mentally patted herself on the back. Her job didn’t seem so hard after all. Seulgi heard a soft ‘famous last words’ and realised she had said it out loud. She spent the next few minutes being utterly mortified while Jessica smirked knowingly.

Taeyeon came over for a visit during their last day to discuss some other job assignments with Jessica over lunch. Jessica asked Seulgi again if she would be ok having lunch alone and she was more than happy to. As much as she liked her two superiors, a little time alone to relax sounded very appealing. Jessica waved her off, told her to be back by two and Seulgi practically skipped out of the room. 

Seulgi made her way back to the restaurant Ms Bae had brought her to a few days ago. Settling for a table in a cosy corner of the shop, Seulgi took out her earphones and watched some videos her friends had shared with her throughout the morning while she waited for her food to be served.

Seulgi didn’t realise that somebody occupied the empty seat across from her until a hand suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision and she jumped.

“Oh my god you scared me!” 

Seulgi almost shouted and was greeted by the sight of Irene who was trying very hard to stifle her laugh but failing terribly. A giggle escaped and Seulgi decided right there and then that she really liked it when Irene laughed, even if it was at her expense but she could live with that. She quickly wound up her earphones and shoved them into her pockets.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t resist. It was your fault. You were so focused on your phone you didn’t notice me. I was even standing beside you for a bit,” Irene protested, one brow raised ever so slightly and eyes sparkled mischievously. Whatever protest Seulgi was about to make died in her throat immediately. 

_ She’s adorable. _

Seulgi didn’t get eat lunch alone that day like she wanted to but she decided it wasn’t so bad.

\---

“It was still  _ not  _ a lunch date.”

“..okay”

\---

“Seulgi, you’ll be going with Taeyeon’s team next week to help them out with their fieldwork. Her team will be meeting up at our office tomorrow, maybe after work, for a briefing to the members on the job scope. Listen well and ask if you don’t understand anything, alright?”

The said girl looked up from her notebook and nodded. It suddenly clicked as to why Taeyeon had visited them all of a sudden that afternoon.

“Ah! Was that why Taeyeon was here just now?” 

“You’re smarter than you make yourself to be.” Jessica sounded impressed by how fast Seulgi had managed to piece things together and then went on to explain to her that she was in-charged of managing manpower in their company, assigning juniors to back-up team leaders in their fieldworks. Jessica needed to discuss with Taeyeon on the details before she could actually allow her whisk their company’s resources away for a week or two, effectively messing up the current team assignments Jessica had planned a few weeks ago.

“It’s annoying when they need back up but there’s nothing I can do about it. Our boss already approved her request.”

***

Seulgi had imagine fieldwork briefings to be something that was to be taken seriously. She had imagined it to be relatively short because since when do working adults like to prolong meetings? Besides, it was Friday after-work, surely everybody else had places they’d rather be than in the meeting room in their office.

She had imagined and expected many things but what she did not expect was for her new team leader, Yoona, to draw four semicircles on the board when everybody had settled into their seats. Capping the marker, she turned around looking very serious and Seulgi made it a point to open up her notebook, fully prepared to start taking notes. 

“Choose.”

Seulgi blinked in confusion. What was Yoona asking them to choose from? She looked around the room. There were five of them in the team, excluding their supervisor, Taeyeon. Seungwan and Joy seemed like they were contemplating something while another senior, Seohyun, was shaking her head and fired up her laptop. It wasn’t until Taeyeon had answered did everything suddenly made sense.

“I want tuna on one of the halves.”

“Can we have pepperoni on one side and then triple cheese on the other half?” Joy asked after a short discussion with Seungwan.

Pizza. Yoona had asked them to choose pizza toppings. Taeyeon announced that she was buying, she handed her credit card over to Seohyun who was already on the restaurant’s website and in the process of ordering.

“So that’s 3 halves. We still need one more, guys.” Seohyun pointed out. “Seulgi, what do you like on your pizzas?”

“A-anything is fine.” Seohyun gave her a look that said please pick something and Seulgi continued. “Hawaiian? Can’t go wrong with that.”

“Ok. Do you want them to hold the pineapples?”

“I’m fine with or without.” 

Seohyun nodded and completed their pizza order. Yoona was about to clean the whiteboard before Joy asked if they could get chicken too and the food discussion continued with them spending another fifteen minutes deciding on which flavour to order.

That was how dinner started and it ended with Yoona headlocking Taeyeon after they had wrestled over the last piece of chicken. Seulgi wondered why did Taeyeon even try because Yoona practically towered over their tiny supervisor and won with ease. That did not stop Taeyeon from protesting when Yoona finally bit on the juicy piece of meat and Taeyeon let out a very devastated cry as she watched Yoona deposit what was left of it into their makeshift trash bag. Seungwan and Joy were both laughing their heads off at the spectacle while Seohyun ignored them completely, obviously too used to her team members and supervisor behaving like such.

Seulgi scooted over closer to laughing duo and whispered, “Are they always like this?”

“Like how?” Joy had managed to catch her breath long enough to reply.

“This.” Seulgi gestured vaguely towards the battling duo. “Chaotic.”

“Oh. They usually aren’t like this. Sometimes they’re even noisier and rowdier, especially when Hyoyeon and Yuri are around. Right, Seohyun?”

“They may seem like two dumb dumbs but trust me, they’re the best when they’re in ‘professional mode’.” 

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”.

Seulgi decided that if this was how fieldwork briefings were going to go then she picked the right place to work at. 

The real briefing started a short while later and it was passed 9pm by the time they were done.

“Alright, team. That’s our new plan for the coming week. Any questions?” Yoona, glanced at her members and their supervisor after she had finished briefing them. They had spent the previous hour and a half explaining and discussing their client’s workflow for the department they were going to assess in the weeks to come. 

Random questions were thrown at the youngest three in the group and while Seulgi had struggled to answer some of it, Seungwan and Joy handled them with relative ease. Which made sense since they had started working at the company a few months before Seulgi had joined them. Seulgi was determined not to fall too far behind and tried to participate as much as possible during discussion, earning her approving nods from Taeyeon who was quietly observing.

After Taeyeon was satisfied that her team was ready enough, she called it a night and let them go home.

\---

“You have got to be kidding. I don’t believe you.”

“I kid you not. That’s how things go most of the time.”

\---

Seulgi soon learned that no two fieldworks were the same. While the assessment fieldwork with Jessica was fairly quiet and simple, the one with Yoona was definitely on a whole different level. For one thing, Seulgi was given much more complicated tasks to complete and was no longer a glorified secretary.

Yoona had them going back and forth to their client’s staff with endless questions just to be able to grasp the workflow in the entire department properly. Seulgi would fall short with answers, sometimes having left out a question or be completely stumped when Yoona had asked her some follow-up questions to the one before. 

“Right so you’re saying that if they were to make payments to their suppliers, all payment requests would have to go through their boss, the Finance Manager, did I catch you right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“All the payments go through that one person? As in that one person has the power to approve all payments regardless of the amount?”

“Y-yes?”

“Seulgi, what do you think the risk might be if there is only one person in-charge of approving payments?”

“I-I uhm…”

“Tell you what, you can think about it and let me know later. Now, I need you to go back to the Finance Manager and ask him for a Payment Authorisation Matrix. He’ll understand. Bring it back and I’ll explain things to you.”

“Al-alright. I’m sorry, Yoona.” Seulgi bowed and exited the room in a rush.

Taeyeon whistled.

“Wow, Yoong, you’re scary. The poor girl was practically shaking!”

“Like, you’re the one to talk, Taeyeon. You scared me shitless when I first joined.” Yoona refuted.

“Fair point.” Taeyeon nodded and turned her attention to the other members in the room. “Who’s scarier? Me or Yoong?”

“To be fair, we find the both of you scary when you’re on ‘professional mode’.” Joy replied and Seungwan nodded like there was no tomorrow.

***

When Seulgi returned ten minutes later, Yoona had sat her down together with Seungwan and Joy to give them a little lecture on why it was important for a company’s payment to be approved by different people depending on the payment amount. The youngest three listened intently and Yoona sent them on their way again when they were done. 

That day, Seulgi returned home after dinner and collapsed onto her bed face first.

“I’m so tired,” she whined to nobody in particular and fell asleep.

The remainder of the fieldwork passed in similar fashion - with Seulgi, Seungwan and Joy going about gathering information while Seohyun and Yoona used the gathered information to think of ways to improve their client’s work process and finding some implementation lapses along the way. Taeyeon had occasionally dropped by to check on their progress and left to supervise other teams.

There were one or two minor hiccups along the way but it was nothing Seohyun and Yoona couldn't handle. Seungwan and Joy had proven to be reliable assistants despite having worked there for less than six months. The others have taken to calling them Super Rookies because they could produce quality work. And from what Taeyeon had observed, Team Super Rookies would be getting a new member soon - Seulgi might be new but she was catching up to them quickly. 

“Come on kids. Pack up and let’s go for supper before going home. There’s no way I’m letting you guys go home like this after a long week. My treat. Chop chop.” Taeyeon announced to the Super Rookies when the oldest three returned to the conference room after a wrap up meeting with the clients while they had sat out. They nodded enthusiastically and practically raced out the door towards the car park.

Supper had been fun even though most of them were dead tired. Everybody seemed to have regained some strength after eating and soon they were laughing their heads off while trading war stories from their previous fieldworks. Taeyeon had shared a hilarious story of how Jessica almost fainted that one time after work because Taeyeon had filled her car with bags of cucumbers.

“Taeyeon had a death wish, clearly.” Seohyun snickered at the oldest.

“It was April Fool’s Day!” Taeyeon defended.

***

Seulgi spent a good portion of Saturday curled up in bed under the blanket, refusing to move because it was that comfortable and she was that tired. She had slept in that day - her way of rewarding herself for having worked hard all week. It was only when her stomach protested did she make an effort to whip up some kind of meal and showered afterwards. 

She returned under the blanket in record time and fell asleep again until the sun was about to set. Blindly groping the bed for any signs of her phone, she squinted at the bright screen and decided it was just the right time to pay them a visit. It had been way too long since her last visit and knowing them, they won’t be happy.

When Seulgi arrived, she saw a decent queue was starting to form in front of her destination, a pink food truck with huge letters that read “Let’s Taco Bout Love” spray-painted all over it. The crew were busy and hadn’t noticed Seulgi approaching until it was her turn in the line. One of them took one look at Seulgi and turned away.

“Sunny ah, I think I just saw a ghost.”

_ Oh boy, here we go. _

“What?” Sunny, who was busy at the grill earlier, looked up and saw who her partner was talking about. “Oh. You’re right. I see her, too! Who knew ghosts can be seen, Sooyoung ah! I’m scared. Maybe we should move spots next weekend, this place is haunted by the ghost of Seulgi past.”

“Good idea.”

Seulgi groaned at their exchanged, glad that she was the last person in line and nobody had queued behind her yet. It was going to take a while before they actually got to her order.

“I’m sorry for disappearing for so long. Work is crazy tiring!” Seulgi half whined at the duo. 

“Sooyoung ah! The ghost talks! Maybe we should send in the application to move spots tomorrow.”

Seulgi could hear the rest of their crew snickering at their boss’ antics.

“Way ahead of you! Already got the forms downloaded in my phone.”

“That’s my girl” Sunny finger gunned Sooyoung and they high fived each other before turning fully to face Seulgi, looking up at them with a pout.

“I’m sowee. Can I order now? I’m hungry.” Seulgi was full on whining and pouting at that point.

“Ah we can’t have our little bear starving. What will it be today, little one? The usual?” Sooyoung reached out her arm to pat Seulgi’s head and she beamed in return. 

“Yes, please! I’ve missed the food here so much.”

The two had joined Seulgi at one of tables set out to catch up with her. Their crew was more than happy to cover for their bosses while they chatted away with their regular customer. To say that Seulgi got special treatment from the bosses was an understatement. Sure, she had whined and complained about it countless of times but Sunny and Sooyoung didn’t care. Seulgi’s orders were always in a bigger portion and she got free refills of any drinks, if she wanted, but she rarely asked for one.

Seulgi had been frequenting the food truck for years and was very fond of the two young entrepreneurs, as they were of her. They would join her at her table most of the times and  Seulgi often told Sunny and Sooyoung stories from her days in school, complaining about uptight lecturers and useless assignment group members. The two would listen intently and gave the younger girl some advice, even if she never asked for them. Some were neither good nor practical as the rest while some might have straight up gotten Seulgi arrested. 

\---

“How did you know them again?”

“They’re good friends I made when I first moved here as a student.”

\---


	3. Chapter 3

 

Whatever excitement of finally being able to leave the office waned after a few months as Seulgi found herself wanting to return to her desk more and more. Work was starting to pile up thanks to new company engagements their boss had worked hard to secure in the last few months and Seulgi was starting to tire from the repetitive nature of their work. 

Their fieldwork schedule was also gradually becoming more and more hectic to say the least and the Super Rookies trio were just about at their limit. They had been going on fieldwork non-stop for a few weeks consecutively, all quite a distance away from where their office resided and the commute plus the workload was taking a toll on them.

Jessica had recognised the signs of fatigue they were giving out and benched them at the very first opportunity she could. Seulgi all but skipped to work in delight that Monday, having missed her desk and their quaint, little office. It was almost like coming home, a sentiment that both Seungwan and Joy shared.

Seulgi plopped down on her seat unceremoniously with a sigh and folded her arms on her desk, resting her head on them, smiling contently. 

“Are you that happy to be back?” Joy, whose seat was opposite Seulgi’s, asked.

“Yeah. I mean, I complained a lot about being stuck at this desk at first but now, man am I glad to be back.”

“I know what you mean,” said Seungwan who just arrived, “I missed my desk a lot too. At least now we can take it easy a little - do some housekeeping, filing, maybe read an old case file or two. I got the best sleep in a while last weekend because there weren’t any pending working papers to worry about.”

“Ugh don’t remind me of the working papers, please.” Joy made a face. “Seohyun just reviewed mine last Friday and sent them back with a tonne of review points. I’m going to be spending the entire week clearing them.”

“I know, you told me. Which is why I made you these!” Seungwan unzipped her bag to produce a small, brown paper bag. Joy seemed to already know what the contents were because she accepted it with much glee. Seungwan then took out another one and handed it to Seulgi. “Here’s some for you, too!”

“Thank you. What’s inside?”

“CUPCAKES!!” Joy settled the bag on her desk and pulled Seungwan into a bone-crushing hug, nuzzling into the latter’s neck instantly. “You’re the best!!!”

“You always get into a mood whenever you have to clear those review points so I thought these might make you less grumpy.” Seungwan patted Joy’s back and pulled away.

“You’re in for a treat, Seulgi! Seungwan makes the best cupcakes. You won’t want to buy any from bakeries anymore after this!” Joy gushed and Seungwan went into an adorable shade of pink.

And they were really that good. 

***

The week they were benched passed slowly and it was exactly what Seulgi had wanted it to be. None of their seniors seemed to have needed their help with anything so Seulgi had taken it upon herself to study an old case file to pass time, but she wasn't actually going read it, she just needed something on her desk and in her hand for it to seem like she was doing something. She figured she deserved a bit of rest after the hectic weeks they had. Even Seungwan and Joy were doing the same. Seulgi later found out that it was a norm in their line of work - it was called ‘The Art of Acting Busy - How to Avoid Being Given Jobs’.

All was calm and peaceful until Jessica had informed them via email that they were going on a new fieldwork with Seohyun as their leader in two weeks and reminded them to use their free time wisely. In other words, to read up and prepare. Seulgi’s eyes widened when she read the client’s name and the department they were going to work on, the Procurement Department of CCSJ Corp, also known as Ms Bae’s department, who was Seulgi’s biggest distraction.

Seungwan nudged Joy when she saw that Seulgi had been staring at her laptop screen unmoving for quite a bit. It was as if her brain had crashed and rebooting was taking a long time. Joy waved her hand in front of Seulgi to catch her attention but she didn’t even blinked. 

“I think she’s still buffering, Joy.”

“I think so, too. Seulgi? Earth to Seulgi? Hello?” Joy waved a few more times and Seulgi finally noticed them.

“Huh? Oh sorry guys. Were you saying something?”

“Yeah. Did you get Jessica’s email? We’re going out again in a couple of weeks to a new place.”

“I got it. And it’s the place that I went with her to a few months back for the high risk assessment interview thing.”

Seungwan had a moment of enlightenment.

“Oh! Ms Bae?”

“Miss who?”

“Ms Bae. Apparently she’s this very pretty girl who works there and Seulgi went on two lunch dates with her!”

Seulgi explained again and again that they were just two very regular people who had lunch together but Joy was not in the mood to listen and proceeded to tease the poor girl endlessly about Ms Bae - asking if Seulgi had missed her in the past few months, if she had tried to keep in touch and what not. Seungwan was just enjoying the spectacle and didn’t realise that they were causing a scene until Taeyeon had cleared her throat.

“Do you three have something to share with us? What is this about lunch and a ‘Ms Bae’?”

Taeyeon calmly asked while the other occupants in the room had turned their attention away from their work and towards their supervisor and the Super Rookies.

“Oh, Seulgi has a crush on somebody called Ms Bae from CCSJ.” Joy nonchalantly told Taeyeon and Seulgi wished that the floor would swallow her up. To her surprise, instead of giving Seulgi a lecture about being professional, Taeyeon threw her head back and burst into a hearty laugh, Jessica frowning in disapproval from her seat.

“Of course you would, Seulgi-ah! It’s ok I don’t blame you though, nobody can resist my cousin.”

Seulgi’s eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets after hearing Taeyeon’s revelation.That made Taeyeon laugh even more and pretty soon everybody was laughing at how ridiculous the situation was.

“Sica yah! You didn’t tell her?” Taeyeon turned to Jessica, looking at her incredulously.

“It wasn’t even relevant to the job scope. I didn’t see the point in letting her know. Besides,” Jessica made eye contact with Seulgi and she gulped. She knew whatever Jessica was going to say next would not be good for her. “Seulgi was probably too busy ogling her to realise. She even scored two lunch dates with her that week, didn’t you, Seulgi?” Jessica finished very smugly.

A whistle was heard, followed by a “damn girl, you got game!” and the whole office roared with laughter once more.

“For the last time, it was NOT a date!”

***

Seulgi was stressing herself out with the fieldwork to CCSJ because Jessica was their supervisor instead of Taeyeon. She would’ve preferred the latter since Taeyeon was more relaxed and carefree but since there was an issue about related parties, their boss had forbad Taeyeon to supervise her team and told Jessica to do it instead.

With Jessica personally overseeing the fieldwork to CCSJ, Seulgi felt slightly more pressured compared to her previous outings with Taeyeon. Jessica would be expecting Seulgi to know how  the department worked since she had sat in on all the interviews a few months before. Seohyun seemed to had read her mind and cornered her before the fieldwork began.

“Seulgi, why do you look so stressed? The fieldwork hasn’t even started yet and I’m the team leader. I should be the one who is supposed to be stressed, not my assistant. Are you afraid of me?”

“N-no! It’s just I feel like there are things that I should know since I’ve been there before and I don’t want to disappoint you or Jessica so I guess I’ve been a little hard on myself.”

“A little? Seulgi, you’ve been very hard on yourself. Please take it easy. Ok?”

“Ok.”

“Besides, you have Seungwan and Joy with you. There’s nothing to worry about.”

True enough, there was nothing to worry about. The fieldwork was off to a good start. They had conducted an opening meeting with Mr Jung to discuss the work scope of the departmental review and despite being difficult during the risk assessment interview, Mr Jung seemed to have been placated and was actually cooperating with them - providing them any sort of documents that were requested and answers to any sort of questions asked. He even had directed them to their documents storage room where the rookies trio set to work immediately, picking out whichever files that were needed and transferring them to the conference room that would be their work base for the coming week or two.

Seulgi was in the copy room with Joy, with Seulgi prying off staplers from the stacks of documents and passing them to the latter to be copied. They were working in relative peace until a voice bellowed Seulgi’s name from outside the tiny room.

“Seulgi!”

The two rookie consultants turned to the door to see a girl waving at them. Joy’s eyebrows furrowed, confused as to who that person was until it occurred to her that it must be the infamous Ms Bae. Seulgi confirmed her suspicions instantly.

“Ms Bae. Nice to see you again.”

“It sure is.” 

She was leaning against the doorframe at that point, arms folded, looking amused as she caught Seulgi trying hard not to stare at her, not that Seulgi noticed.

_ Goodness, she got even more adorable. _

“And who might you be?” Ms Bae turned her attention to Joy.

“Park Sooyoung but please call me Joy. Pleasure to meet you, Ms Bae.”

“You seem to have heard of me. What have you been telling them back at your office, Seulgi-ah?” Ms Bae teased. “All good things, I hope?”

There it was again, Seulgi wanted to tell Joy and to point accusingly at Ms Bae, th-that thing she did with her eyebrows when she spoke. It was infuriating this time around because she looked so smug.

“Only the best, Ms Bae. Our Seulgi is very fond of you.” Joy seemed to have caught wind of Ms Bae’s intentions and joined in.

_ I’m going to murder this giant later no matter what Seungwan says! _

“Really now? That’s good to hear. Seulgi, why didn’t you tell me you were coming for the review? I thought they were sending some other consultants over, somebody called Seohyun?”

“Th-that’s our team leader, Ms Bae. She’s the one who has been coordinating with you guys for this review.” Seulgi explained while Joy, who was clearly entertained by the whole situation, watched silently. The flustered girl was slowly turning red, much to Joy’s delight.

“Fine. Next time let me know alright? We can have lunch again or something.”

Seulgi went a shade redder.

“Eh? Uhm...” 

“I mean it, Seulgi. You have my card. Use it.” 

And with that, she walked off, leaving Seulgi behind to deal with whatever teasing Joy was about to unleash on her. When they were sure that Ms Bae was a good distance away, Joy squealed with, well, joy.

“Seulgi! Oh my god, Seulgi! Did you just hear what she said?”

“Wha-what? Huh? What just happened?” Seulgi was still processing what had happened.

“She totally said to call her. Seulgi, do you know what this means?!” Joy was clearly having too much fun.

“I..uh..uhm..yes? I’m not sure? Maybe she didn't mean it that way? I mean, we barely know each other.”

“Oh my god you are so dense! Fine. We’ll ask Seungwan and Seohyun for their opinions later.”

Seulgi could only stare at Joy, mouth agape.

\---

“...did you just roll your eyes at me?”

“What? Oh come on, it was so obvious she meant it that way!”

\---

Unfortunately for Seulgi, the fieldwork was almost ending and she had barely seen Ms Bae after that incident in the copy room. Heck, to even bump into her while walking around the office proved to be a challenge of its own, which was ridiculous when her desk was literally right outside the conference room they were using. 

The assistant manager, it turned out, was constantly being tied up by meetings with their suppliers day after day that week, negotiating for bulk purchases for an upcoming company project. It seemed that Mr Jung had ordered her to attend on his behalf while he had to entertain the team of consultants who were conducting their review that same week. Seulgi wanted to ram her head against the wall in frustration when she found out.

“Aaaw there there, Seulgi. There’s always next time!” Seungwan tried to cheer her up.

“Yea! And it’s not like you  _ have  _ to wait till the next review to see her. You can, oh I don’t know, give her a call?” Joy said matter-of-factly, earning herself a glare from Seulgi.

“Why am I friends with you again?”

“Because I’m awesome and you know it.” Joy replied smugly.

“Girls, might I remind you that we are still on the clock? Please be professional, at least for the next 15 minutes.” Jessica reminded the trio while tipping her pen towards the wall clock in the room. 

They immediately quieted down and went back to their work, checking their respective working papers for errors and making sure their explanation sufficed to avoid an onslaught of review points from their team leader afterwards.

Working papers were the bane of their existence, Seulgi thought. Initially she had wondered why Seungwan and Joy would complain about them because it all sounded very simple. All they had to do was transfer the information in the documents into some tables drawn up in an Excel spreadsheet. It wasn’t until when Taeyeon had returned her working papers with an obscene amount of review points did she understand why her two friends had complained so much. Clearing them was a huge pain in the butt.

Seohyun, who left the room earlier for a discussion with Mr Jung, returned much later, apologising profusely for taking so long. Jessica had brushed it off because she was just doing what was needed to be done, there was nothing to apologise for. Seohyun nodded but looked apologetically at the Super Rookies because they were obviously hungry and tired after a long day of work. 

“Let’s grab dinner before we head home. What do you girls think?” Seohyun suggested as they were waiting for the elevator.

“I’m ok with it. Joy? Seulgi?” Seungwan asked her fellow rookies.

“We’re cool with it.”

“Alright. Jessica? Do you want to join us for dinner?”

“Sorry but I’ll sit this one out. I’ve already promised to have dinner with Taeyeon today.”

Just as the elevator door opened, Seulgi gasped.

I think I left something back in the conference room. I’ll meet you guys at the lobby!”

“Ok, don’t take too long.”

Seulgi turned to her heels and headed back to their work base with great haste. She sighed in relief when she saw that her wallet was still sitting on the table, exactly where she left it when they got back from lunch earlier. She quickly stuffed it into her bag and left the room only to freeze completely when she stepped out because there she was, the elusive Ms Bae that she had missed the entire week, was packing up her things to go home, too.

“Seulgi? I thought all of you left already.”

“Ms Bae..I mean..Irene” Seulgi corrected herself when she saw a frown forming. “I left my wallet behind just now. Everybody else is waiting for me at the lobby.”

"Ah. Alright then. Shall we?” 

“Shall we what?”

“Shall we go? Unless you want to stay here for a while longer? I don’t recommend it though, we’re the last ones here.”

“Oh! Go. Right. Yes! Let’s go. Elevator’s this way.” Seulgi pointed to the way she came in and Irene chuckled at the bumbling girl.

“Yes, I know. I’ve been working here for the last five years or so.”

“Oh! Right. Yes, silly me. Uhm..let’s go?”

Irene giggled this time.

“Yes, let’s go. Lead the way, Seulgi ah.”

***

When Seulgi and Irene stepped out of the elevator together, several pairs of brows were raised and Seulgi groaned internally. She was not prepared for another round of teasing especially if it was going to happen right in front of Irene. Thankfully, everybody kept quiet while Irene brisked pass them towards the door. She was about to push the glass door open when she heard her name.

“Irene?”

Turning around, she was greeted by the sight of a blushing Seulgi and her snickering colleagues. It was quite easy to guess what was going to happen next.

“Yes?” Irene raised a brow and Seulgi faltered slightly.

_ She has got to stop doing that eyebrow thing! _

“Uhm..we’re about to go get dinner and uhm..I was wondering if you would like to join us?” Seulgi had tried to her best to sound confident but it wasn't very convincing. The other three were holding their breaths, silently cheering for their friend.

“I’m sorry, Seulgi-ah. Thank you but I can't tonight.” 

“Oh. Uhm..that’s ok. Uhm…” 

“I’m free tomorrow though.” She added and Seulgi, for once in her life, understood the hint.

“I’ll call you tomorrow then!” 

“Already looking forward to it. See you tomorrow, Seulgi.” 

Okay!”

Irene smiled that bedazzling smile of hers and gave them a little bow before exiting the building. Hearing the faint sounds of cheering as she walked further, she smiled to herself and shook her head.

_ Not bad, Kang Seulgi. Not bad at all. _

_ \--- _

“Wow.  _ You  _ made the first move?”

“...can you please give me some credit?”

\---

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

Yoona, who had joined them as soon as Seohyun updated her about Seulgi and Irene’s development, had a field day with Joy during dinner, acting out every possible conversation while the rest had a good laugh. Seulgi was too busy making mental notes and was quite serious throughout the entire thing, much to their amusement. She had never done something like that before - calling a girl and potentially asking her out on a date so any form of pointers was greatly appreciated, even if they were from their company’s resident dumb dumbs.

“Sometimes you gotta be bold, Seulgi! If you want to ask her out just take a deep breath and say it! I mean, it worked fine when I did it. Right, Seungwan?” Joy wiggled her brows at Seungwan and the latter blushed, shoving Joy who laughed it off.

“Yea! The same goes if when you want to hold her hand. Just do it. Grab it and go!”

“Yoona, you’re making it sound like I’m going to mug her.”

“It’s the same concept.” Joy quipped.

“No, it’s not. My goodness. Seulgi, please don’t listen to them about that last part.” Seohyun interjected, aghast by the advice they were giving.

“Just try to be subtle but bold at the same time!”

“Seungwan, what you just said make no sense at all but somehow it does make some sense.”

That night Seulgi tossed and turned in bed for the majority of the night, trying to think of what to say for when she finally gathered up enough courage to give Irene a call. She gave up on sleep sometime around four and opt to replay her favourite video game instead. There was something very calming about having the character run around in the snow collecting items and completing missions. Sure, there were a few troublesome animals that stood in the way, nothing a few poison arrows couldn't fix. Gunning down the enemies’ army of soldiers was very enjoyable as well.

“Hah! Take that, you idiots!” Seulgi cheered triumphantly, console’s controller held high in the air as she fist pumped, watching as the character used a shotgun finisher on the last of them. “That oughta teach you not to mess with me!” She did a quick sweep of the area for collectibles and moved onto the next.

She eventually passed out on the couch in the living room after a couple of hours.

Seulgi later spent a good part of the morning pacing around her tiny apartment and she was sure she had already chewed off most of her thumb’s fingernails. Staring at her phone on the table, she hesitantly picked it up together with the business card that sat beside it. Seulgi glanced at the clock to see if it was an appropriate time to call. It was already ten, she should have woken up by now, Seulgi thought. Gulping, she carefully dialled the number printed on the card, silently praying that the person would not pick up.

_Please don’t pick up. Please don’t pick up. Please don’t pic-_

“Hello?”

“Oh! Hello.”

“Yes?”

“Uhm..is this Irene Bae?”

“Seulgi? Wow you called earlier than expected!”

“You’re beginning to sound like my friends.”

“I’m sorry, Seulgi-ah. You make it so easy it’s hard to resist!”

Irene apologised for teasing Seulgi so much when they barely knew each other but Seulgi sensed that the older girl was definitely not sorry at all, like that phrase she often saw on social media, not that Seulgi minded. As they chatted on, Seulgi found herself lost in her thoughts, trying to think of a way to ease into the topic of asking Irene to hang out together, or so she thought.

“Seulgi? Are you still there?”

“Huh? Yes. Sorry I spaced out a bit. You were saying?”

“I was asking if you would want to hang out later in the afternoon. We can grab lunch and window shop or something?”

_Eh???_

“S-sure! I’d love to.”

“Great! It’s a date! I’ll text you the details. See you later, Seulgi-ah.”

“Okay!” Seulgi flinched at herself for sounding so eager. “See you later!”

Seulgi put the phone away only after she was sure that Irene had ended the call. Staring blankly at the wall in front of her, she started laughing in disbelief.

_Well that just happened._

\---

“Oh? I thought you were going to ask her out?”

“...she said getting me to make the first call was already a great feat so she decided not to push her luck further.”

\---

_Picking out an outfit should not be this difficult._

Seulgi sat crossed legged on the bed in front of her opened wardrobe, eyes scanning every item of clothing and her brain trying to pair them up to make some kind of outfit work. What do people wear for occasions like such anyway? Her guess was as good as anybody else's’. She eventually settled for a stripe button down shirt with a pair of blue jeans.

_Can’t go wrong with blue jeans._

She took one last look in the mirror to appraise herself. Words of encouragement from her friends from the night before echoed in mind and she looked her reflection dead in the eyes and nodded with conviction.

“You can do this, Kang Seulgi!”

Another nod and Kang Seulgi was out the door, headed for the shopping district near Sunny and Sooyoung’s taco truck, praying that she would reach there before Irene did. She wanted to make a good impression, it was their first meeting outside of work after all. And from what Yoona had told her yesterday, first impressions were important.

So there she was, the first to arrive at their meeting point. Seulgi smiled triumphantly to herself and fished out her phone to send a text to Irene. She scanned the vicinity when Irene replied that she was almost there while rocking on the balls of her feet, restlessness apparent.

Seulgi’s eyes widened when she spotted Irene walking towards her a few minutes later. She was dressed almost similarly to Seulgi that day. Coincidence? It had to be one right? It was a very mysterious mystery because there she was, dressed in an off-shoulder striped blouse with blue jeans, and Seulgi was definitely _not_ staring at her shoulders. Anybody who was observing them wouldn’t have second guessed that they were dating. Couple outfits was a common trend after all. Seulgi pocketed her phone and waved at her, Irene beaming in return.

_Alright, you can do this._

“Seulgi! Sorry I’m late. Have you been waiting long?”

“No, I just got here. Y-you look nice.”

“Thanks, are you indirectly complimenting yourself?”

“Eh?”

Irene gestured to their clothing and Seulgi got the message.

“Oh. No no. I mean y-you look nice.”

“You are too adorable sometimes, Seulgi-ah”

Irene gave Seulgi a bop on the nose and naturally looped an arm over Seulgi’s and Seulgi froze, causing Irene to release her grip on the girl.

“I’m sorry..I have a habit of linking arms. Are you okay with it?”

“Huh? Oh yes I’m okay with it. No worries. I was just a bit shocked.”

Irene eyed Seulgi, looking confused.

“I mean, you’re just so pretty!”

Seulgi wanted to facepalm then and there.

_Really, Kang Seulgi? Really?? That’s the best you can do?_

“Flattery will get you anywhere, Seulgi.” Irene said smugly while relinking their arms, pulling Seulgi towards an alley. “Let’s go!”

\---

“Nice save.”

“Thanks. That eye roll was not necessary by the way.”

\---

Lunch was a quaint little cafe located in one of the alleyways of the shopping district, quite easily missed for those who weren’t paying attention- the exterior of the shop was not particularly eye catching. It was a one of those vintage-themed places where the walls were lined with shelves of old books and was filled with mostly antique wooden furniture to give it that rustic feel. Irene seemed to be a regular there because the owners greeted her with much familiarity.

The food was great but Seulgi barely paid attention to it. She too busy chatting to even notice that their food was served, let alone realise that she had cleaned her plate, Irene was a distraction regardless of it being during work or not. The two of them chatted for hours after they had finished their meal. The conversations didn’t feel forced, they just rolled on from one topic to another like two old friends catching up with each other, laughing and having a good time.

Seulgi learned that Irene was the oldest among her siblings, her only other sibling being her younger sister around Seulgi’s age who was studying overseas. She also learned that Irene’s favourite household chore was doing the laundry, ironing included, because she loved how fresh the clothes smelled after a wash and that sense of satisfaction when she ironed out all the wrinkles in a piece of clothing. It was apparently a running joke in her family that her sister will gift her a bottle of fabric softener for her birthday each year of varying brands, accompanied by the real present afterwards.

Irene was apparently an overachiever as a student - straight A student, student body president and even the drum major of the school’s marching band. Seulgi was more surprised at the last bit of information than she was at Irene being a model student.

“What?”

“I mean, you’re so tiny. How did the ones at the back of the marching block see you?”

“They could see my mace and that was more than enough, thank you very much. What? Why are you laughing?”

“Wasthemacetallerthanyou?” Seulgi blurted, a laugh bubbling free.

“Yah! Kang Seulgi!”

They got along so well that it was hard to believe it was only their third meeting, even the shop owners had asked Irene how long they had been dating. Seulgi suddenly found her shoes to be very interesting, didn’t dare meet Irene’s gaze because she was sure that she was blushing.

“No, we’re not dating...yet.” the last word came out barely a whisper but Seulgi caught it and she swore she almost screamed.

_Yet!!!_

“Well, could’ve fooled me! You two are dressed for it that’s for sure.” The owner laughed. Irene smiled and he went about clearing the table next to theirs.

By the time they emerged from the cafe, it was already almost sundown. The shopping district was slowly coming to life with all the lights that were being lit as they walked by. A crowd was also starting to form since it was the weekend and it was cooler to walk around at night. Locals and tourists alike flocked to the area. It was getting difficult to walk properly as they bumped into others left and right. Seulgi had lost count the number of apologies she had given and received in that short amount of time.

 _“Sometimes, you gotta be bold!”_ Joy’s voice echoed in her mind.

Seulgi very hesitantly took hold of Irene’s hand and kept her close. She didn’t dare meet Irene’s curious gaze and kept looking straight ahead, she could already feel Irene raising a brow. What she didn’t know was that Irene was smiling shyly beside her, her free hand covering her half her face.

“Uhm..it would be bad if we got separated, ya know?” Seulgi tried to play it cool, eyes looking everywhere but at Irene.

“Can’t argue with that.” Irene replied in a singsong manner.

They spent the next couple of hours wandering the streets and the world underneath it all, checking out any store whose display caught their attention. Irene had occasionally tried out an outfit or two and paraded them to Seulgi who was trying to resist from taking photos, unsure of how Irene might feel about it. They were still getting to know each other after all. It was when they were at a shop selling hats did Seulgi caved and fished out her phone. She tried her best but Irene was right there, looking absolutely adorable and stunning even as she tried on a red beret and was checking her appearance in the mirror.

Irene had saw Seulgi from the mirror and turned, catching the younger girl red handed. Seulgi froze for what seemed to be the hundredth time since their outing started and laughed awkwardly at an amused Irene.

“Seulgi-ah..”

“Y-yes?”

_This conversation can only go two ways._

“Can you take a picture of me?”

_Oh_

The grin that formed was threatening to split Seulgi’s face in half, not that she cared. With a surprisingly steady voice, she replied, “I thought you’d never ask.”

A few shots later and Seulgi thought to herself, yea, she could get used to this.

And she even ended up buying the beret for Irene, though the latter did protested.

\--

“Wow you were already so whipped back then!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault. I mean, have you _seen_ her?”

\---

As they walked further, Seulgi’s eyes widened at the sight of an awfully familiar pink truck and she halted, causing Irene to stop short as their hands were still connected.

“Is something wrong?”

“No..uhm..let’s not go that way, Irene. At least not today.”

“Oh? Why not? There’s lots of good food that way.” Seulgi was confusing Irene for the nth time that day.

“I’ll explain to you another day. But for now, can we go somewhere else?”

Irene was about to nod when they heard somebody shout.

“KANG SEULGI WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING?! HOW _DARE_ YOU WALK AWAY BEFORE COMING TO SAY HI!!”

“Let her be, Sooyoung-ah. She probably already forgotten about us now that she found herself a GIRLFRIEND.”

Seulgi groaned and facepalmed at the emphasis Sunny had placed on the last word.

_Dear god did I do something wrong to deserve this?_

Irene was equally confused and amused by the whole situation. Who were those two who shouted and why was Seulgi so reluctant to go near them?

“Looks like we’re going that way after all, Irene.” Seulgi smiled apologetically at her and they started walking towards the pink food truck. “There are a couple of people I’d like to introduce to you. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. Lead the way, Seulgi-ah.”


	5. Chapter 5

 

To be fair, Seulgi would have introduced Irene to Sunny and Sooyoung sooner or later, preferably later and preferably when they had actually started dating. Had she noticed sooner that they were walking towards the food truck strip of the shopping district, Seulgi would have suggested that they go to another area instead - the one with street food vendors lining up the entire strip. But, as always, she was too preoccupied with talking to Irene to realise where they were going and it led to the current..situation she was in.

Irene was throwing her head back with laughter, with one hand covering her mouth and the other slapping Seulgi who was seated beside her, as she listened to the stories of Seulgi’s younger days in school as told by Sooyoung while Sunny manned the truck with the rest of the crew. Seulgi merely smiled and went along with them because, well, she liked it when Irene laughed, even if it was at her expense. Plus, it was a good way to break the ice, she should be grateful that they were getting along so well.

Sooyoung retold the story of that one time Seulgi fell asleep in class and the lecturer told everybody to keep quiet and slowly approached her seat, only to drop a book on her desk. The sound of it made Seulgi jump and she stood up straight, head hitting the lecturer’s in her haste. Seulgi fell to her chair, cradling her head and looked up to find that she had broken the lecturer’s glasses right down the middle. The entire class had a good laugh that day and was dismissed early because Seulgi’s headbutt had given their lecturer a headache. Irene looked like she was wheezing at that point, trying to catch her breath as she wiped away her tears.

Needless to say, Seulgi had many regrets that night in her choice of confidant but Irene was having fun so she didn’t mind it that much. Not the way she imagined ending their..date but close enough. She made a mental note to be more careful with the stories she would share with the two entrepreneurs in the future. Seulgi never really thought that they would be used against her in such a situation, but then again, nobody told her life was going to go in such a way.

Sunny joined them a little while later when the crowd had become more manageable for their crew to handle it without their bosses’ help. She sat down beside Sooyoung and began picking at whatever leftover fries there was on their plate, asking if they wanted a second helping. Irene politely declined.

“You know, I’ve seen you two when I walked by this truck a couple of times before and even then I knew you weren’t regular crew members.” Irene remarked offhandedly while sipping her drink.

“Of course we’re not.” Sooyoung responded without a second thought. “If I were caught on camera, all the pageant queen contestants will get ignored.” Sunny nodded in agreement.

“You’re right.” Irene agreed, not missing a beat and Seulgi gaped at her.

“Seulgi, I like this one. She’s a definitely a keeper!”

“You would do well to keep this one, little bear. She clearly has good taste. And anybody who listened to you talk about Beyonce for hours is worth keeping.” 

At that point, Seulgi was already at a loss for words as the three ladies had their eyes on her. She tittered nervously and took a sip, only to choke and spit it out a few moments later when Irene asked “This one? Has there been more than one, Seulgi-ah?”

Seulgi heard them share a three-way high five as she coughed, the drink having entered her nose, heard Sunny congratulate Irene on a job well done and welcomed her to the club. What club was she talking about? Seulgi didn’t know but she had a feeling her days ahead would be spent being under the bus should a gathering like such happen again.

_ Dear lord please forgive me for whatever wrongdoings I’ve done to deserve this. _

***

“Today was really fun, Seulgi-ah. Thank you.”

They were walking towards the subway station entrance, Seulgi had insisted on seeing Irene off. She figured it should suffice since to ride all the way back with her would be stepping over some kind of boundaries. So there they stood, awkwardly side by side, still holding hands, unsure of what to do.

“Yea? I’m glad then. I was afraid you would get bored. My friends seem to think I’m the no.1 no-fun person in the office.”

“You were not bad. Though I must say, I wasn’t expecting to meet some of your friends so soon. I’m sorry for teasing you so much today, Seulgi.”

“It’s alright. I’m a big girl, I can handle it.” 

“Great. So..I’ll be going now? Catch you later, Seulgi.” 

“Okay.”

Irene turned to leave, only to be tugged back because Seulgi hadn’t, more like wouldn’t, release her hand. 

“Seulgi?” 

Irene looked at the younger girl, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, face flushed. It seemed like she wanted to say something, but at the same time, she didn’t know how to.

_ Be bold! _

“I uhm..I was wondering if you’d like to do this again sometime? Hang out like this. Together.”

“Together?”

“Uhm..yea. Together. Like together together.” 

Seulgi went a shade redder and Irene found it very endearing. Taking a step closer, Irene entered Seulgi’s personal space.

“Together together? Kang Seulgi, are you asking me to go steady? After one date?”

Seulgi didn’t think her heart could take it anymore, not with Irene looking up at her with those doe eyes, not quite mischievous yet somewhat adoring at the same time, smiling expectantly at her. She was pretty sure she would have screamed had Irene raised a brow at her then.

_ Get a grip. Be bold! _

“Y-yes. I’m asking you to go steady. T-to be my girlfriend. Uh..what other ways are there to put it?”

Irene’s gaze soften at the sight in front of her as Seulgi ransacked her brain for any other possible terms, brows furrowed while trying to think of something else to say. She decided to stop teasing the poor girl for once and put her out of her misery.

“Yes.”

“Huh? Yes?”

Irene couldn’t handle it anymore and burst laughing for the nth time that day. Seulgi was just too adorable for her own good. 

“Yes, Seulgi. I would love to.”

Everything happened so fast. It ended before Seulgi even realised what was happening. One moment Irene was standing there, the next moment she was leaning up slightly on her toes and then Seulgi was left in a daze.

She heard Irene’s laugh, that melodious laughter she had been hearing a lot that day and had come to love, heard Irene said goodbye and see you later. She felt herself waving back, heard herself saying goodbye but was it really happening? It was when Irene had disappeared from sight did Seulgi recovered.

_ Holy shit. _

Irene had given her a peck on the cheek.

And Seulgi did her victory dance and fist pumped all the way back home.

\---

“You got game!”

“Barely. But thank you. I appreciate that.”

\---

The Super Rookies trio were benched in their office on Monday while Seohyun and Jessica went back to CCSJ to tie up some loose ends for their fieldwork, much to Seulgi’s disappointment. She was hoping to be able to have lunch with Irene since her endless string of meetings were over. Seulgi gulped as she stood outside her office, fully aware of what would happen the moment she crossed the threshold. 

And things played out exactly like what she had imagined.

Yoona and Joy practically clung onto her, questions firing away, not giving Seulgi a chance to even settle down and put her things away. Even Taeyeon joined in the fun when she arrived a few moments later, sure she had heard everything from Irene over the weekend but she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to have some fun terrorizing their rookie. Seungwan could only watch as her poor friend was crowded by their friends, like paparazzis hounding an idol. 

“We want to know all the details! Don’t leave anything out because I would know.” Taeyeon told Seulgi, using that tone of voice only reserved for when she was being serious. Seulgi looked at Taeyeon in horror, thinking of how badly Irene must have been grilled by her older cousin after their date over the weekend.

“W-what has Irene told you?”

“Oooooooh! Irene! No more ‘Ms Bae’, Seulgi?” Joy teased and Seulgi went red.

_ Seungwan, I’m sorry but I will murder your giant later or so help me. _

“Worried about her girlfriend already. My my aren’t you sweet, Seulgi-ah.” Taeyeon crossed her arms and shook her head. “Now spill! I might know but they don’t and I’m sure everybody is dying to know.” 

Seulgi caught the glint in Taeyeon’s eyes and whimpered, proceeding to tell most of the details of their outin-date on Saturday.

***

While the “be bold” mantra helped Seulgi gained a girlfriend a few months ago, it wasn’t very helpful when it came to work related tasks. Confidence was something Seulgi would say she neither possessed nor had gained since starting work. Jessica would tell her over and over to believe in her own abilities. 

According to Jessica, Seulgi had the potential to be a great consultant, she was able to think like one and had the common sense needed but she lacked in self confidence. Taking instructions was not a problem for Seulgi, she could do anything as told with great efficiency. But when it came down to taking charge, she could not step up to the plate and Jessica vowed she would break Seulgi of that bad habit she had. Seulgi had worked a full year and it was time for her to shoulder bigger responsibilities.

“Seulgi, come over for a while. Bring your notebook please.”

“Okay?” Seulgi took a seat on one of the chairs in front of Jessica’s desk.

“You’ll be coming with me in three weeks to CCSJ for a special fieldwork. It’s quite simple and small so don’t worry. You will be your own team and before you go further into your panic, I will be accompanying you the entire fieldwork so please calm down.” Jessica paused to study her expression, Seulgi was never good at hiding how she felt. It always showed on her face. “I’ve emailed you the details but I’m going to go over them with you once now.”

To her credit, Seulgi remained relatively calm throughout the entire briefing. She took notes diligently, asked the appropriate questions and seemed to have understood their work scope well. Their briefing ended in just under an hour, by far the shortest fieldwork briefing Seulgi had participated in. Jessica was impressed by how composed she was throughout, having expected Seulgi’s composure to crack half way through it.

All of that was just a front, of course. While Seulgi had let the idea that she would be fully in-charge of a fieldwork sink in as the day passed, it didn’t stop her from whining to Irene later when she went over to the latter’s place for dinner. 

Irene typically finished work earlier than Seulgi did and very often would Seulgi find herself having dinner at Irene’s studio apartment. It had become a routine for them for when Seulgi was benched in the office, after a long day of work Seulgi would stop by once or twice a week for dinner and wash up before heading home.

“I’m not matured enough for this.” Seulgi was sprawled on the couch after she was done with the dishes, her limbs dangling off the couch as she made no effort to seem presentable.

“You always say that.” Irene appeared a few moments later, placing a plate of freshly cut fruits on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Seulgi, scoot.” Seulgi tilted her head backwards to look at her girlfriend and sat up only to lie back down, resting her head on Irene’s lap, when the latter was seated. “Look on the bright side. You’ll be around for a week, yes? We can have lunch sometime, if Jessica doesn’t mind.”

“I’m sure she’ll be ok with it. It’s not like we’re reviewing your department again anyway.” Seulgi waved her off and reached over towards the plate on the table. “Hyun, say ‘aah’”. Seulgi held a piece of apple up at Irene who gladly accepted. “Which it’s a good thing..I think? I’d probably be too distracted to work properly if we were reviewing your department again.”

“Jessica would have your head if that were to happen, of course. Seulgi, ‘aah’.”

“Ddaeng kyu” Seulgi said with her mouthful and Irene gave her a look. She swallowed and smiled sheepishly at the latter.

“But you know Seulgi, you’ve grown a lot since the first time we met.”

“Yea?” Seulgi got up from her comfy spot and sat cross-legged on the couch, facing Irene. 

“Yes. You’re no longer a child, that I can see clearly.” Irene shifted to face Seulgi as well. “You’ve matured, Seulgi-ah. And I’m so proud of you. When I first saw you a year ago, you were a jumpy little secretary, taking notes of whatever we said and you always seem to look like you were looking for the nearest exit out of the room. And now look at you! About to be taking charge of your own fieldwork. Isn’t that like, a full circle for you guys? Like you’ve made it, you’re in-charge now.”

“Oh…”

“Yea, ‘oh’, you silly bear. You should give yourself more credit, Seulgi. Didn’t you do a good job in that fieldwork with just the three of you last month? Even your boss commented on it, didn’t she?” 

“Oh yea. That happened.” Realisation struck Seulgi late. 

Jessica had put the Super Rookies trio on a fieldwork by themselves without any of their seniors present to guide them. Their only source of guidance was Jessica herself and they had been very hesitant in asking questions, quite often pushing Seulgi to ask since she was more familiar with Jessica. That fieldwork was a test to see if they were ready to lead their own teams and it had gone well. Their boss was impressed and Joy and Seungwan were promoted to team leaders soon after. Seulgi, having joined a few months later than the two, was left to wait for her big break while Jessica thought of ways to improve her confidence level.

“Yes, that happened.” Irene took Seulgi’s face in her hands, gently squeezing her cheeks. “You are doing so well, Seulgi-ah. And I know you’re absolutely going to crush this next fieldwork. And I’m not just saying that because we’re dating.”

Seulgi simply stared at Irene as she made her little speech, visibly calmer and more relaxed. She had that effect on her, Seulgi realised. Irene was able to calm her down easily, always knew the right things to say - she did have quite the way with words, Seulgi sometimes wondered why had she not become a writer instead. 

“I don’t deserve you, Hyun.” 

“Well, I’m not too sure about that.” 

Irene smiled softly at her and leaned in for a kiss. And it turned into kisses. And pretty soon they had forgotten about the unfinished plate of fruits on the coffee table.


	6. Chapter 6

If Seulgi were to compare the risk assessment she attended with Jessica to the one she was in-charged of, she would say that the relationship between the two of them had definitely improved. No longer did she felt intimidated or jumpy when it was just the two of them. In fact, it was quite comfortable. If she didn’t know any better, she would say that Jessica had thawed slightly, her aura no longer icy cold and she seemed to have mellowed.

_Maybe marriage does that to a person?_

Seulgi mused as she trailed behind Jessica and an admin staff from CCSJ who was showing them to their work base. They were seated in a small discussion room in a far corner of the company for that particular fieldwork, everywhere else seemed to be fully occupied. Irene had even helped looked around for some place better but she came up short.

The room seemed like it had seen better days - the furniture themselves looked a bit dated, the wallpaper seemed to be peeling off as well. Jessica had barely managed to control herself from making a face when they first entered the room that morning, nose scrunching up and lips curved downwards in disdain. At least they seemed sturdy, she commented as she appraised the wooden upholstered chairs, giving them a shake to prove her point. Seulgi shrugged and settled her things, ready to start her one-woman show, as Joy had called it.

“Alright, Seulgi. Ready?”

“Not really but yes.”

“Good. It’s showtime. Go call Ms Kim in, we’ll start the interview.”

Seulgi saluted Jessica and left to fetch a Ms Kim from the sales department, leaving behind a chuckling Jessica who was shaking her head.

Seulgi stuttered her way through the first half of the opening interview with Ms Kim, her nerves not quite in check yet. Jessica interrupted and took over for a few questions, giving Seulgi some time to compose herself. Being fully responsible for interviewing the clients for information was scarier than she thought, as compared to asking them for bits and pieces of information upon her leaders’ request, which most of the time was just to satisfy their curiousity. Jessica let her continue from where she left off once she was seemingly calmer.

They managed to get through the interview process in one piece, Seulgi sighing in relief without waiting for Ms Kim to exit the room and Jessica wanted to facepalm right then and there. Ms Kim had laughed at her.

“You’re just as adorable as Irene says you are, Seulgi. I can see why she likes you so much.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll be on my way now, I’ve another meeting. My assistant should have the documents ready before lunch.” Ms Kim said and made an exit, as if she hadn’t made the previous remark.

“Wow Seulgi..you sure are popular here.” Jessica teased, surprising Seulgi with her playfulness.

“Don’t…” Seulgi held a hand up at Jessica, she could already feel her face colouring.

***

Jessica left to supervise another team seeing how the most important part of the review - the interview -  was over and she was quite sure that Seulgi knew what she needed to do. Seulgi gave her a not-so-convincing thumbs up but Jessica didn’t have much of a choice, the other team was in trouble and she needed to be there to do some damage control. And so Jessica left before lunch, leaving Seulgi to fend for herself again.

She was about to start tidying up her interview notes when she heard a knock on the door. It was Ms Kim’s assistant delivering the documents they requested earlier. Thanking him, she started to sort through the files to retrieve whatever was needed. Seulgi didn’t realised that it was getting late until she felt a series of vibration coming from under the pile of documents. Fumbling about, she found her phone.

“Hello? Jessica? Yes everything is ok. Yea I got the documents already. Going through them now. You’re coming back later? Ok. No worries. Thank you.”

Seulgi hung up and her eyes widened when she saw the time. She quickly gathered her things and went out front to meet Irene.

Irene brought her to a place that newly opened in the area, a Japanese noodle shop, a place she had been wanting to introduce to Seulgi for a while now because apparently it was that good. They had just missed the lunch crowd so the shop was not as packed as usual, Irene said. Seulgi apologised for being late again. Irene waved her off, flashing her a smile that she knew would leave Seulgi speechless.

She had a good laugh watching Seulgi eat her noodles that day, mainly because the younger girl flinched every time the noodles slipped from her chopsticks and whined when the splattering broth stained her shirt. It was quite the education, watching her try to keep the slippery udon in her chopsticks’ grasps, whining when they once again slipped and fell back into the broth.

“Seulgi-ah, do you need a fork? You can eat them like pasta!” Irene giggled at her own suggestion. Seulgi glared at her, eyes filled with determination as she continued her battle with her noodles.

“I can do this, Hyun. Otherwise I’ll change my name to yours.” She said firmly.

“Oh? You want to take my name? Seulgi, are you asking me to marry you?”

Seulgi choked immediately, the noodles having gone down the wrong pipe, and Irene burst into fits of giggles. Teasing Seulgi was something that never got old because the younger girl’s reaction were hilarious. She laughed even harder when she saw Seulgi pulled a noodle out of her nose, face contorted in disgust.

“Ugh..thank goodness I didn’t order the spicy broth version or this would be really uncomfortable.” Seulgi blew her nose into the napkin and drank some water to clear her throat.

Once Irene had stopped laughing, Seulgi became serious. “Also, as much as I would love to marry you, Hyun, I think it’s a bit too soon at the moment.”

Seulgi winked and Irene turned red.

***

Jessica returned to see the tiny discussion room in a mess, it was practically a war zone with stacks of files covering every available surface of the table, some were even sitting on the floor. Seulgi had surrounded herself with a pile of papers stacked by her laptop. She looked up to greet Jessica before returning to her work. Her manager nodded approvingly at her.

Seulgi paused while going through the documents to check on the notes she had taken down earlier, to confirm something. She frowned when she saw that her handwriting was illegible in her effort to write while talking to Ms Kim.

“What are you reading?” Jessica asked when she saw Seulgi frowning while reading her notebook. The said girl had been standing at her seat reading for the last few minutes. She had rested a knee on the seat of the chair, something that Jessica had noticed Seulgi almost always did whenever she was standing near one.

“Trying to figure out what I wrote. It looks like a bunch of chicken scratch.”

“Please don’t do this, Seulgi. Those notes are important. Let me see them.” Jessica extended her arm, asking for the book. Seulgi leaned over on her knee to hand it to her but just as the book reached Jessica, a loud crack was heard, startling the both of them.

“What was that?” Jessica asked as she looked around for the source of the sound.

“I’m not sure-” Seulgi didn’t get to finish her sentence because Jessica burst laughing, hand slapping the table while another was covering her mouth. It was the first time she had ever seen her manager laughed like that without the presence of Taeyeon in the room. Seulgi wondered what had happened but she figured it out the moment she sat back down.

Seulgi had broken the chair she was leaning on.

“Jessica, what are we going to do?” Seulgi panicked as she inspected the chair for damages.

It would seemed that the force she had put on the upholstered cushion caused one of the spring coils to break through the bottom, leaving the chair unstable for use. It was also quite a huge coil so there was no way they could cover it up even if they wanted to. It took awhile before Jessica stopped laughing to assess the damage inflicted on the poor, unsuspecting chair.

“Okay, let’s see what we have here.” She looked around the room and smiled. Pointing to the extra chairs lined up in a corner, she instructed Seulgi to swap a chair over. “Make sure you put the broken one in the far end so that it’s less noticeable.”

“Got it.” Seulgi got to work quickly, replacing the chairs and even dusting all the extra chairs to make the broken one less noticeable. It was quite obvious that they hadn’t been used in a long time, a thick layer of dust covered them. “Do they look okay? Does anything look out of place?”

Jessica took a few steps back to assess her handiwork. Everything seemed fine, Seulgi had even used one of the decorative potted plants to block the broken chair. It was hardly noticeable really. Jessica gave her a thumbs up and they resumed their work until it was time to go home.

\---

“You broke a chair? How does one even break a chair?!”

“Again, not my finest moment thank you very much.”

\---

Seulgi found it difficult to meet Irene’s gaze in the days following the fieldwork. She felt kind of guilty for damaging their client’s property, even if it was just a chair they barely used anymore. Everytime Irene spoke to her she would turn away quickly and look elsewhere. She suddenly found everything else in the room to be interesting and it was getting on Irene’s nerves.

Irene had let it slide the first few times Seulgi had avoided her gaze. She found it odd at first because her girlfriend had a tendency to stare at her when she thought she wasn’t looking. Seulgi would come up with all sorts of excuses, Irene’s favourite being the one where Seulgi said she could get lost in her eyes. So it was another mysterious mystery, as to why Seulgi had been avoiding eye contact ever since she finished her solo fieldwork.

Seulgi was seated on the couch playing a new video game she had just bought. Irene never cared much about console games but it made Seulgi happy, so she had refrained from commenting how sometimes Seulgi would spend more time gaming than spending time with her. It didn’t happen very often, only once in a while when Seulgi bought something new.

Irene usually didn’t interrupt whenever Seulgi was playing, something Seulgi appreciated a lot. She would usually just sit beside her and watch, occasionally commenting on the story or how Seulgi was playing it. So she found it very odd as to why Irene was standing in front of her, blocking her view of the television.

Seulgi tried adjusting her posture to look beyond Irene to read the choices that came up on the screen. It was a quick-timed event so Seulgi didn’t have much time to waste because whether or not her character lived or died depended on how efficiently she made the choices. Seulgi continued playing until Irene cleared her throat.

“Uhm..Hyun, I’m sorry but can you move for a sec? I’ll stop when I get to the next cutscene.”

Seulgi negotiated, her eyes never leaving the screen.

“Fine..”

Irene huffed in annoyance and settled on the couch beside Seulgi, leaning on the younger girl’s shoulder.

“Thanks, you’re the best.” Seulgi turned her head quickly and kissed the top of Irene’s head.

It took another 15 minutes before she reached the next cutscene, Seulgi having taken her time to make the choices and to look around for collectibles. She hit the pause button and settled the controller on the coffee table. She turned to face Irene but her eyes wandered around the room.

“Yes? You wanted to say something?”

“Seulgi..are you cheating on me?”

Seulgi turned to meet Irene’s eyes so fast she swore she pulled a neck muscle.

“Wh-what? Wh-what makes you say th-that?”

“Well, where do I even begin? How about the fact that you suddenly would not, for the love of god, look me in the eyes? Or the fact that you’re actually stuttering right now? Something you only do when you’re nervous. What are you so nervous about, Seulgi? Who is she? I can take it, Seulgi. Tell me.”

Seulgi looked at Irene in horror. How did she even associate it to Seulgi cheating on her? And she actually looked like she was about to cry. Seulgi felt like the worst person on the planet right then.

“I need you to calm down, Joohyun-ah. It’s not what you think.”

“Really? Because it definitely looks like what I think.” Irene narrowed her eyes at her and Seulgi gulped. “So, who is it?”

“It’s not the matter of who..more like a matter of what..”

“What?” Irene was more confused than annoyed at the moment. Seulgi was not making any sense at all.

“I..uhm..you see, something happened during the fieldwork..”

“I’m listening..” Irene crossed her arms and leaned on the couch armrest.

“Right..uhm. First, I need you to know that I’m not cheating on you. I love you too much to even think of doing that, Hyun. Secon-”

“You love me?”

“Yes, now secondly-” Seulgi stopped, realising what she had just said. “Oh..uhm..yes. I do..you know? Love you. Very much. Yes.” She could feel her face heating up at the confession, willing herself not to look away from Irene because she wasn’t doing any better either. Her face was probably redder than Rudolph’s nose at that point. “Wow your face is really red, Joohyun-ah.”

“Shut up!” Irene shoved Seulgi’s shoulder and hugged her knees to cover her face, leaving only her eyes visible. “Idiot..”

“Yes, idiot. Very much so. Yes.” Seulgi gave herself a shake and cleared her throat before continuing, “I broke a chair in your office that day, Hyun. I’ve been feeling really bad about it. That’s why.”

“You what?” Irene straightened her posture.

“I broke one of the chairs in your office that day. It was an accident, I swear!”

Irene was looking at her incredulously as though she had sprouted a second head. Her lips quivered and she bit on them but it was useless. Irene was laughing before she knew it.

“Hyuuuuun…” Seulgi whined. “Stop laughing please!”

“That was you? Goodness we were making conspiracy theory as to how a spare chair in a spare room could break on its own. My boss was just about to get a guru in to check on the place for spirits!”

“Oh my god!”

\---

“...at this point I’m not sure if you actually have game or you’re just winging everything”

“Trust me. I was winging everything.”

\---


	7. Chapter 7

 

“Seulgi-ah?” Irene called from the living room while Seulgi was doing the dishes after their dinner one weekend.

“Yea?”

“How many days can you take off for Christmas?”

Seulgi put away the last of the dishes and wiped her hands dry. Untying and putting away the apron, she fetched the calendar that sat by the tv and joined Irene on the couch. Seulgi pulled out her phone from her pocket and scrolled through her memos for the one that contained her work schedule. Her schedule was getting increasingly busy ever since she got promoted to be a team leader the previous month, she could no longer keep up with her schedules without writing them down somewhere. 

Irene was happy for her, yes, but she also missed the days where Seulgi had more free time for them to go on dates or even a short weekend trip. Seulgi seemed to be too tired to do anything lately and Irene had been trying her best not to be too disappointed whenever Seulgi asked if they could just stay home or take a rain check  because she wanted to nap.

“Hmm..okay so the last of my fieldworks for this year ends on the 16th. I’ll probably need a few days to sort out the working papers and draft the report..and the next fieldwork doesn’t start until after new years so I guess I’ll be free from the 21st onwards. What’s up?”

The smile on Irene’s face told Seulgi that her girlfriend definitely had something planned for the two of them for the coming holidays. 

“Seulgi-ah..” 

Irene cooed a bit too sweetly and Seulgi was slightly scared. The previous time that happened was when Seulgi had defeated her in a video game. She had introduced the silly video game to Irene in hopes of getting her technologically challenged girlfriend to try her hand at gaming and she was so bad at it. It was basically a soccer game but instead of controlling little human players, they controlled race cars and Irene would miss the ball every single time she approached it, as though there was an invisible forcefield around the ball pushing her away.

Seulgi had cheered a bit too enthusiastically when she won the first time and froze when she saw Irene was smiling at her, the same sweet smile she was giving Seulgi at the moment. She shuddered at the thought of what had happened next and gave herself a shake. Turning to a confused Irene, she replied meekly.

“Y-yes?”

“What do you say about going home with me for the holidays? We’re having a family reunion, Taeyeon and Jessica are going to be there too!”

_ Oh. Meeting the parents AND the extended family.  _

“S-sure..why not? It’s about time I met your family, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve already met mine.”

_ Okay. You can do this. _

“You sure?”

“Yea. No problem at all, no worries.”

_ You can do this. _

Irene’s met the Kangs a few weeks ago when Seulgi went back home to celebrate her parents’ wedding anniversary. Seulgi had sheepishly told her mother that she would be bringing somebody home with her during a video call and briefly introduced Irene to her after having told her mom so many stories of her girlfriend. Needless to say, Irene charmed her mother on the spot and the rest of the family followed. They had only talked for a few minutes but Mrs Kang spent the next few days asking Seulgi all sorts of questions about Irene to prepare for their visit.

_ ‘What kind of food does she like?’ _

_ ‘Can she handle spicy food well? ‘ _

_ ‘How about alcohol?’ _

_ ‘How did you find somebody so pretty?’ _

And the last one, Seulgi was pretty sure her brother sent it instead.

_ ‘Did you beg her to save your single butt for this trip home? ‘ _

Seulgi very promptly ignored it and took a screenshot of the conversation.

_ ‘Joohyun-ah, my mom loves you already. How did you even do that?’  _ Seulgi sent the picture to Irene.

_ ‘Because I am awesome.’ _

Well, Seulgi couldn’t argue with that.

When Seulgi told the office team, they surprisingly did not tease her about it. In fact, they were quite supportive - giving her tips on how to behave, how to handle in-laws. Seulgi very promptly went red at the mention of in-laws and they laughed. Yoona and Taeyeon gave each other high fives and fist pumped, apparently they successfully guessed what Seulgi’s reaction would be.

_ Should’ve known better than to trust these dumb dumbs to not make fun of me. _

Seulgi rolled her eyes but made mental notes during the entire thing. They might be dumb dumbs but Seulgi had learnt in the past year working with them that that was how they usually gave advice - by teasing her. She listened intently, especially to whatever Taeyeon said since she knew the Bae family the best out of the lot. Jessica was seated at her desk, listening to the entire thing and Seulgi could see her nodding from time to time, agreeing with whatever ‘advice’ they gave. 

The advice must be useful for Jessica to agree, Seulgi thought.

The gang was hovering around Seungwan’s desk during the entire commotion, munching on some cookies she baked for them the day before. Unknowing to her, they were getting glares from Joy the whole time because they were hogging Seungwan’s cookies. Seungwan signalled to Joy towards her bag and Joy unzipped it eagerly. She dug out another pack of cookies labelled “Sooyoung” and held it protectively away from all the vultures that were their friends, determined to save the entire packet for herself.

***

Seulgi was back in Irene’s apartment that night to discuss the details and logistics of the trip. After coordinating their schedules, they decided to take an entire week off between Christmas and New Years and visit Irene’s family for about four or five days. Since Irene’s sister would be coming home to spend her winter break, Seulgi figured they would probably end up spending most of their days off there to let the two siblings catch up with each other.

Irene had initially wanted to drive all the way back but Seulgi was against the idea, so were her parents when she called them. Irene argued, pacing around her house, that she was a seasoned driver and had driven home during winter countless of times before but her parents were not having it. There had been too many accident news lately and they were worried in their own right, even one of their country’s favourite celebrity got caught in an accident as of late due to slippery roads. 

Mr Bae firmly rejected Irene’s idea to drive and told them to take the train instead. He already sent the online tickets to Irene’s email address while they were on the phone and ended the call. Irene let out a frustrated groan and frowned. Seulgi quickly led her to the couch and turned on her favourite movie before she worked her way into a sulk for the entire night. Grabbing a blanket from the bedroom, Seulgi settled on the couch next to Irene. Irene was still on the opposite end of the couch, still frowning and pouting. Seulgi sighed and shook her head.

_ What a child. _

“Joohyun-ah..”

Irene turned her attention away from the opening credits towards Seulgi, eyes softening at the sight of her smile. Seulgi patted the spot right next to her and held out her hand.

“C’mere.”

Irene didn’t need to be told twice.

***

The weather had been terribly cold on the day of their departure, a thick blanket of snow covered the city as snow fell for the majority of the night till day break. Irene and Seulgi were both bundled up and huddled together while they waited for their train by the tracks. The station was packed with others just like them who were their way home, be it to celebrate the festivities or just to spend time with their families.

“It’s so cold today!” Irene whined and grimaced, screwing her eyes shut when an incoming train from the neighbouring track brought about a gust of cold wind. She quickly hid behind Seulgi until the train came to complete stop, hugging Seulgi’s back and leaning fully onto the younger girl.

“You’re such a whiny baby sometimes, Hyun.”

“I don’t want to hear that coming from you, pro-whiner.”

Seulgi put both hands in the air and surrendered, getting the hint that Irene was not in the mood for jokes that morning. Sensing that the grip on her waist was loosening, she turned around and gave Irene a proper hug to warm her up a bit.

“Ya know, sometimes I forget how small you are. You’re always wearing some kind of heels.”

“You’re just really tall.” Irene mumbled.

They stayed like that for a little while longer before the signboard signalled that their train was approaching. As the train rolled in sight, they gathered their things and boarded the train while Irene continued to cling onto Seulgi’s form, the cold being her perfect excuse.

\---

“Wait. How long have you two been dating again? You two are really clingy.”

“About..seven..eight months maybe? Give and take.”

\---

Seulgi was noticeably quiet during the train ride. She kept fidgeting with the zippers of her jacket, mumbling words that Irene couldn’t catch. Seulgi stopped when Irene took hold of her hands. 

“Seulgi, are you nervous?”

“N-no…” 

Irene raised a brow. Seulgi looked away and a soft ‘yes’ could be heard.

“Don’t be. They’re very laid back people. Didn’t Taeyeon already tell you everything before I could?”

“Yes but….” 

“Hmm? Come again? I can’t hear you.” Irene leaned closer to Seulgi to catch what she was mumbling.

“I really want their approval. What if they think I’m not good enough for you?”

The look on Irene’s face told Seulgi that her girlfriend could not believe what she was saying.

“What? It’s true! I mean..look at you. Look at me.” Seulgi gestured back and forth between the two of them.

Irene sighed and shifted in her seat, elbows resting on the armrest as she leaned closer towards Seulgi, just like she did on their first not-date lunch date. Seulgi, to her credit, neither moved nor flinched. Irene had her serious face on, Seulgi daren’t move to be honest.

“Do you know what I see?”

Seulgi shook her head.

“I see a hardworking 24-year old who is always trying her best in whatever she does. I see somebody who doesn’t give up, whines a lot, but never gave up..”

“I don’t whine that much!” Seulgi protested but quieted when Irene raised a brow.

“Seulgi, you are smart, strong and astonishing. How many more times am I going to have to tell you for you to accept it?!” 

Seulgi starred at Irene, blinking. She didn’t expect such an outburst from her usually calm girlfriend. A few moments passed before Irene spoke again.

“Please have more confidence in yourself, Seulgi-ah. You can do anything! You can rock the world! You’re gonna paint the world with your colours!”

“Oh! Like how I painted your back that one time?” 

Seulgi asked innocently, completely missing the point. Whatever Irene wanted to say next died in her throat and she blushed. Leaning closer, she rested her forehead on Seulgi’s shoulder in defeat, shaking her head at her clueless girlfriend.

“Not exactly but close enough.”

“Okay. I’m still worried though, of what they might think.”

“They’re going to love you, trust me.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Irene lifted her head and looked Seulgi in the eyes.

“Because I already do.”

***

They spent the remainder of the ride looking out of the window with Irene resting her head on Seulgi’s shoulder, occasionally fishing out her phone to take some photographs of the passing landscape. Most of the photos ended up as blurry shots but she seemed satisfied with them. Seulgi rolled her eyes and snorted when Irene complained that the train’s windows needed to be cleaned because the camera would sometimes focus on the window’s stains instead of the landscape. Irene glared at her and Seulgi looked away, acting innocent as she pretended to scroll through her social media apps.

“I’m on to you, Kang.” Irene narrowed her eyes at her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Just as Irene was about to say something, her phone rang. She gave Seulgi a shove and answered the phone.

“Hey, brat! You’re picking us up later? Okay. We still have another half an hour to go so you can probably get ready to head out now. Alright, see you later.”

It was her sister who apparently was going to pick them up at the station later instead of Irene’s father, which Seulgi was silently grateful for. Irene’s pep talk might have calmed her down considerably but she was still slightly nervous about meeting her parents. She didn’t know how they felt about their daughter being with somebody younger and without a clear idea of what her future might be yet. She was still figuring things out as she went after all. 

With Irene’s sister picking them up later, Seulgi would have a few more minutes to collect herself before meeting the parents, or her future in-laws, as Taeyeon had cheekily put it.

Seulgi was quite familiar with Irene’s sister. She had heard countless of stories about her and they even chatted via video call a few times. From what Seulgi observed, they were quite alike. In fact, they looked so alike it was as if Irene had the front camera on her phone turned on. It was like she was looking at her reflection. 

Both of them also seem to share the same odd sense of humour, laughing at the most random things. It was quite amusing watching their video call, they would just burst laughing before they finished their sentences, one hand holding their phones and the other slapping the nearest surface which, in Irene’s case, would be Seulgi most of the time.

As they walked towards the station’s exit, they could see a girl coming at them at full speed, waving excitedly. Irene quickly passed her luggage to Seulgi and soon, squeals of joy could be heard as the two sisters happily greeted each other and were literally bouncing with excitement. Passers by watched the endearing sight and went on their way while Seulgi secretly recorded their adorable interactions. She put away her phone as soon as their excitement had died down a little in fear of getting caught.

“Now I finally get to officially introduce you two!” Irene clapped with excitement. “Brat, this is my girlfriend, Kang Seulgi. Seulgi, this is my bratty baby sister, Jisoo.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Seulgi.”

“Same here. You two look even more alike in the flesh.”

“I’m the prettier one but don’t let her know.” Jisoo whispered not-so-softly to Seulgi.

“Yah! I’m right here I can hear you!”

Jisoo made a run for it and Irene went after her.

This is going to be one very interesting trip, Seulgi thought as she watch the two siblings chase each other around the station.

***


	8. Chapter 8

 

The car ride back to the Bae residence was filled with chatters coming from the two newly reunited sisters. Seulgi was in her own little world in the back seat, mumbling to herself as she rehearsed what she would say to greet Irene’s parents later. Jisoo peeked from the rear view mirror and nudged at her sister, sending her a look. Irene smiled in return.

_ She’s adorable. _

_ I know. _

Seulgi continued with her little rehearsal, unaware that she was being watched. She was getting increasingly nervous as the drive continued. With every turn Jisoo took, she knew they were arriving soon and she, at that point, was a jumpy bundle of nerves. 

_ Okay..you can do this. You can do this. You ca- _

“Seulgi-ah, we’re here.”

“Huh?”

She jumped in her seat and hit her head on the car’s ceiling, effectively snapping her out of her inner monologue. She took a look around and saw that they were parked in what Seulgi assumed to be the garage and both the Bae sibling were already unloading their luggage from the car’s trunk. She quickly gathered herself and went to help. Irene stopped Seulgi in her tracks and took hold of her shoulders, giving her a shake. 

“Better?”

“Y-yes. Thank you, Hyun-ah.”

“My god you’re letting her call you that? You’re a lost cause, Joohyun.” Jisoo tsked and Irene sent her her best glare but didn’t affect Jisoo at all. The said girl stuck her tongue out at her sister and entered the house.

“What did she mean by that?”

“Hmm? She probably said that because none of my exes ever got to called me that.”

Seulgi grinned at the bit of new information. Sure, she was aware of Irene’s exes, she told her from the get go. But she didn’t know about privilege that was being able to call her by that pet name. It happened by accident, really. They were out and about on what was their third or fourth date when Seulgi unconsciously shortened Irene’s name. There was a pause, Irene looked surprised at first and Seulgi thought she had overstepped. She was ready to apologise when Irene’s eyes lit up and she grinned. Seulgi took it as permission granted and Irene never protested ever since.

“Oh...so I’m special, yes?” 

“Yes, Seulgi. You’re special.” 

Irene gave her a quick kiss before pulling her into the house, not wanting to keep her family waiting. 

Seulgi stiffly bowed to Mr Bae during the introductions when they arrived at the Bae’s residence. The Bae sisters joined their mother and watched in amusement as Seulgi remained bowing for quite a while. Seulgi hesitantly raised her head to take a peak at him and straightened her posture when she saw Mr Bae was giving her the same amused look that Irene usually wore. Awkwardly rummaging through her backpack, she dug out the gift she had prepared for him.

“Merlot.” Mr Bae nodded approvingly when he inspected the bottle. “Thank you, Seulgi. Did Joohyun tell you about my wine collection?”

“Y-yes. It’s..uhm..for Christmas and..uhm..also to thank you, f-for letting me stay here for the holidays. Oh! Mrs Bae.” Seulgi almost jumped when she saw Irene’s mother standing by the kitchen counter with her daughters, observing the two of them. Seulgi bowed again and brought out another package from her bag. “Very nice to meet you, Mrs Bae. I have something for you, too.” She walked over to pass it to her.

“My my, how thoughtful. Thank you, Seulgi. I’ll use it well. Let me put this away before I forget.” Irene’s mother placed the cashmere scarf back into its wrapper and disappeared up the stairs.

“Don’t I get anything?” Jisoo asked cheekily and earned herself a shove from Irene and their father shot her a look.

“Jisoo..” he warned.

“I’m just kidding. Goodness, lighten up a bit please people. It’s the holidays.”

“Actually, I do have something for you.” Seulgi rummaged her bag and produced a slim rectangular package. “Joohyun said not to get you anything though.”

“She usually listens to me well. I don’t know what happened.” 

Jisoo accepted the gift in delight and got excited when she saw the familiar blue plastic cover after tearing off the wrapper. Her eyes widened as she saw the bold letters and illustrations printed on the it.

“No way! How did you find this? It’s out of stock everywhere here, I was going to get it when I get back to campus! Oh my god thank you, Seulgi! I’m going to play it right now!” Jisoo made a beeline for the console and plopped down on the couch with the console’s controller, bouncing with excitement as the game booted.

\---

“I can’t believe you bribed everybody.”

“Those weren’t bribes!”

\---

Seulgi was sprawled on the guest bed, arms wide open as she sighed in relief. Introductions went well and they didn’t seem hostile. Perhaps Irene was right, there was nothing to worry about. They seem to like her enough to not oppose to their relationship and truthfully, that was enough for her - she considered it mission accomplished.

She closed her eyes for a few moments before reopening them when she felt the mattress dip, remembering that Irene was still in the room with her. Irene sat on the bed beside her, looking as amused as always.

“That went well. I expected you to stutter more.”

“Thanks, I thought I was going to faint from the nerves.”

“Well, you didn’t and I’m very proud of you.” Irene patted her thigh and Seulgi smiled to herself, feeling accomplished. 

Seulgi yawned and rubbed her eyes. The bed was really comfortable after bracing the cold outside and Irene’s family. She gave Irene a sleepy smile and patted at the space beside her. Irene lied down on the bed, pillowed by Seulgi’s arm.

“Sleepy?” 

Irene bopped Seulgi’s nose.

“Kinda..I think I was running on adrenaline up until now.”

Another yawn.

“You barely slept last night, didn’t you? I felt you tossing and turning for quite a bit.”

“Oh...sorry…” 

Seulgi’s eyes were threatening to close as she fought to contain another yawn.

“Take a nap. I’ll wake you up later for lunch.”

“Okay…”

And Seulgi dozed off. Irene slowly got up and tiptoed her way out of the room.

***

Their first day back in Irene’s hometown passed rather uneventfully. Her parents went out to visit Mr Bae’s boss for the holidays so the three girls were left at home. Seulgi spent the afternoon playing video games with Jisoo while Irene read her book and occasionally glanced at the two as they duked it out. It was a one-on-one combat game and Irene had severely underestimated its entertainment value because by the time it was an hour into the game, Seulgi and Jisoo were going all out, using all sorts of combos and even mildly swearing at each other. 

“Language!”

“Sorry, Hyun.”

“Well I’m not.” Jisoo turned towards Irene and made a face. She regretted it instantly when she heard the game telling Seulgi to finish off her character. She quickly turned her attention back to the screen, only to see that Seulgi’s character was half way performing a finisher move and effectively ending the match. “Yah, Seulgi that’s not fair I wasn’t paying attention!”

“All is fair in love and war.” Seulgi put down her controller and stretched, Irene grimaced when her elbow joints made a sound. “That was fun.”

Jisoo rolled her eyes, clearly wasn’t used to losing when it came to video games. She suggested they changed games, to something that she was more confident in. Seulgi agreed, not wanting to seem like a wuss. When Jisoo settled on a familiar blue race car icon, Seulgi was initially quite confident since she had the same game back home. But Jisoo proved her wrong as she tore pass Seulgi’s defences and scored goal after goal, leaving Seulgi behind in the dust playing catch up.

It went on for a few rounds before Irene told Seulgi to let her play instead.

“You’re playing?”

_ Wow even their confused face is the same. _

“Yes, I’m playing. I’m not going to sit here while you bully my girlfriend.”

“What is this level of double standards? Seulgi had me beat just now and you didn’t even say a single word. And you dont even play games!”

“Hush.” Irene held out a hand at Jisoo. “Are you game or not, little sister?”

“Oh I’m so game. You’re on!”

Seulgi gulped at the two competitive Baes. It would not end well.

Irene destroyed Jisoo thoroughly, leaving the poor girl to sulk in a corner after losing 10 rounds in a row.

“Hyun-ah, I think you got a bit carried away.”

Seulgi whispered to Irene while pointing at the sulking Jisoo.

“‘All is fair in love and war’” Irene quoted smugly.

_ Note to self: don’t challenge Hyun to Rocket League. Ever. _

Mr and Mrs Bae returned home to find their oldest cheering and their youngest yelled for what seemed to be another rematch while Seulgi sat in the middle of the crossfire, trying to calm both parties down. Her efforts were futile as the siblings launched another match, both determined to win. Their parents watched in amusement as their oldest was never one for video games but was currently giving their youngest a run for her money. Seulgi got up from her seat and went to greet them.

“What do we have here?” Mr Bae nudged his head towards his daughters.

“I sort of introduced Joohyun to some games and she’s quite good at them, especially this one.”

“Well it’s nice to see Jisoo having a hard time with games. She has gotten a bit of an ego after beating her cousins.”

“Even Taeyeon?!”

Seulgi was shocked. From what she knew, Taeyeon played regularly and was quite good at video games. She had the reflexes needed and was able to grasp the situation quickly. Strategising was one of her strongest points, something Taeyeon thanked her job for. Years of overseeing teams and making sure that they were able to stick to their work schedules trained her to be a good strategist.

“Even Taeyeon.” Mr Bae nodded in confirmation as he took a seat at the dining table, joining his wife as they watched their two daughters, very much amused by how Irene was actually playing a video game and actually winning against Jisoo.

“Wow..”

“I take it as you know Jessica, too?”

“Yes, we’re all colleagues.”

Seulgi took a seat at the dining table with Irene’s parents and they chatted about Seulgi’s work and anything else that came to mind. Seulgi was able to hold a conversation better compared to when they first arrived. The initial nerves seemed to have been shaken off and soon she was able to speak smoothly without stuttering. It reminded her of the first day she met Irene, how her nerves settled after a while and she rambled on and on about Beyonce.

They continued chatting for a while before Mrs Bae excused herself to prepare dinner. Seulgi, having missed out on lunch preparations, offered to help and was delighted when Mrs Bae said okay. She had previously turned down Seulgi’s offer to clean up after their meal earlier and told the girl to rest instead.

\---

“You didn’t burn the kitchen down, did you?”

“Listen. It was that one time.”

\---

“What did you guys talk about while we were playing?”

Irene asked her mother while they were doing the dishes after dinner.

“Oh you know..the weather, politics, the economy. Boring stuff.”

“Is that so?” 

“Worried?”

“Mom..”

“She’s a very lovable girl, Hyun-ah. Your father likes her a lot as far as I can tell.”

Before Irene could answer, Seulgi came over and asked if there was anything she could help with, again. Mrs Bae had chased her out of the kitchen earlier when she volunteered to do the dishes, citing that she was their guest and she had already helped out enough but Seulgi didn’t want to lounge around and look like a freeloader. 

“Tell you what, Seulgi. Why don’t you two go grocery shopping tomorrow? I have a list of things I need to get. It’s on the fridge. Ask Jisoo if she wants to go along.”

“And be the third wheel? No thanks, mom.” Jisoo yelled from the living room.

Seulgi beamed and went to fetch the list, reading them outloud as she went through it. Mrs Bae smiled and shook her head, Seulgi definitely was a very lovable person.

***

They were about to leave the house when Seulgi’s phone rang and she panicked for a moment when she saw who was calling. It was Jessica. Seulgi quickly ransacked her brain for any possible work matters that she might have unknowingly screwed up before remembering that she were on vacation too and was also in town for the reunion dinner that night. Irene’s gaze shifted from the phone to her face, asking if she was going to answer it. Seulgi answered the phone while nodding.

“Hello?”

“Seulgi, are you guys at home? Taeyeon and I are coming over for a visit.”

“No, we’re about to go to the store, getting some stuff for Joohyun’s mom.”

There was some noise from Jessica’s end and Taeyeon’s voice came through.

“Going to the store?” Taeyeon sounded excited for some reason. “We’ll give you a ride and go with you guys. Reaching in about 5 minutes.”

Irene took hold of Seulgi’s wrist and brought the phone towards her.

“We’ll meet you out front. I’ll let my parents know about it. See you!”

Seulgi had never exactly seen Irene and Taeyeon talk so seriously before while they were in the city. They were currently on their way to the local supermarket and the two cousins were in a deep discussion about the shopping list Mrs Bae made. They were actually strategising on how to efficiently gather all the items on the list, which of the aisles to go to first and how it would eventually lead to them making their way around the store without having to go back and forth to retrieve things. Jessica merely shook her head and told Seulgi that she would get used to it soon enough.

They divided into two teams when they reached the store. Jessica and Seulgi would hit the wet market section while the other two handled everything else. As soon as the two cousins turned to leave, Seulgi pushed the cart towards their destination but Jessica held her back.

“Seulgi, come on I want to show you something.” Jessica tugged on Seulgi’s arm, very determined to pull the younger girl towards where Taeyeon and Irene had gone to a few moments prior.

“Uhm..sure?”

Seulgi allowed herself to be pulled and they were hot on the two cousins’ trail. They soon arrived at the end of one of the aisle. Seulgi looked around, confused, because there was nobody in that aisle. Jessica signalled to her to be quiet and to follow her as she peeped at the aisle next to theirs where the laundry supplies were.

“And here we have Taeyeon and Irene in their natural habitat.” Jessica said, sounding like a narrator in a nature documentary, as they popped their heads out and peeked at the two cousins who seemed to be engaged in another deep discussion on which fabric softener and laundry detergent they should buy. Taeyeon and Irene were both talking animatedly while pointing to the brands available on the shelf. Seulgi looked at them, confused because Mrs Bae had specifically written which brand and type they ought to get. Jessica waved the thought away, saying that it was how they usually were and they continued their observation.

From what they could hear, the pair were comparing which one had a better scent and showing each other the brands that they normally used back home in the city, laughing and clapping whenever they agreed on something. They were even talking about different types and brands of irons, and were comparing the latest steam iron closets in the market.

“I can’t believe I married that idiot.” Jessica mumbled but Seulgi could see the amount of love Jessica had in her eyes while she was looking at Taeyeon. 

“I’ve never seen them like this before..” She mumbled as she turned her attention back to the cousins.

“You haven’t?”

“I mean, I’ve never been grocery shopping with both of them present before so yea. Joohyun does get excited whenever one of us have to shop for new fabric softener but now it’s like her excitement totally levelled up around Taeyeon.”

“They’ve always been like that since they were kids so there’s no need for you to get jealous, Seulgi.” Jessica lightly patted her head. “Come on, let’s go get what we came here to get and meet up with them later.” Jessica nudged her head in the opposite direction and they left the pair in their own little world of fabric softeners and laundry detergents.

They met up at the cashier about half an hour later, each of their carts filled with the items they were instructed to get. Taeyeon did a final check of the items before they queued to check out, an occupational disease apparently from always having to double check everything during work. Irene nudged Seulgi with her elbow and teased that that would be her in a couple of years. Seulgi rolled her eyes comically and refuted that Irene was the one who was going to have to put up with that habit so it didn’t matter to her.

***


	9. Chapter 9

 

The reunion, for most part, was bearable if Seulgi could say so herself. It was not as nerve-wracking as it was when she met Irene’s parents. Once introductions were over, Seulgi spent much of her time hovering around the buffet table while the Bae clan members gathered in their usual cliques and chatted the evening away.

Irene was with Seulgi most of the time and so were Taeyeon and Jessica. Jessica especially, made sure that Seulgi had company and was never left alone whenever Irene had to go socialise and greet her relatives because she understood how out of place it could feel during functions like such, she was once in her shoes, too. Jisoo would occasionally come over to get some food and chat before returning to her clique amongst the family members.

Seulgi took the time to observe the Bae clan and the house the reunion was being held at. It was Taeyeon’s parents’ home and the size itself told Seulgi that Taeyeon came from a well to do family while the trophies on display in the cabinets lining the living room’s wall told Seulgi that, like Irene, Taeyeon was also an overachiever back in school. Walking over to take a closer look, she was not surprised to find an appreciation plaque for her contribution as the marching band drum major among them.

_ A family of drum majors..short drum majors. _

Seulgi chuckled to herself and took a sip of her drink. She looked around some more and found trophies belonging to Taeyeon’s siblings. Seulgi walked around the perimeter of the living room, looking at whatever that was on display - including wedding photos of Taeyeon’s parents and Taeyeon and Jessica’s. 

She vaguely remembered stories from the wedding. Joy and Seungwan had told her whatever that had happened as it was happening because Seulgi was out with food poisoning that day. Her phone exploded with a wall of texts from her fellow Super Rookies, including photos and videos. It seemed that while it had been a beautiful garden wedding, the reception afterwards was a chaotic blur because the entire office team was there. Things were never calm whenever everybody gathered and the added factor of booze made it worse. One things was for sure, they certainly knew how to hype up a party. 

As much as Seulgi regretted not being able to be a part of the fun, she regretted not being able to see Irene in formal wear more. She was swooning while she went through the photos in Irene’s phone the next day when she visited her. 

Seulgi was pulled out of her thoughts when Jisoo came up and grabbed her arm all of a sudden, dragging her up the stairs in haste.

“Wh-what’s going on?”

“Taeyeon just declared war. I need all the fire power I can get. She already took Joohyun so you’re my next best option.” Jisoo explained quickly as they made their way through the corridor upstairs.

“What??” Seulgi was beyond confused.

“You’ll get it in a while.” Jisoo opened the last door and hauled her inside, Seulgi almost falling over from the force. Once she had gathered herself and her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting, Seulgi took in her surroundings and saw that they were in a small theatre room that could seat around nine people. Some of their relatives occupied the back rows while at the very front sat Taeyeon and Irene who were already prepped for war, as Jisoo called it earlier, controllers in hand. Taeyeon was looking surprisingly smug, a Cheshire grin forming.

“Come on, Jisoo. I will now redeem my honour at Rocket League. With the help of my lovely cousin. Right, Joohyun?” Taeyeon turned to Irene for affirmation and Irene smirked. Seulgi could see Jessica shaking her head at her wife’s competitiveness.

“Whatever. We’ll give them a good fight, right Seulgi?”

Seulgi wanted to agree but Irene sent her a glare and she gulped. Jisoo noticed it, of course.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! No fair. You can’t just glare at her like that to mess with her head just because she’s your girlfriend and on the opposing team.”

“All is fair in love and war, little sister dear.”

“Whatever. You got my back. Right, Seulgi?” 

“Y-yea!”

“Close enough. Okay. Game on!”

\---

“You guys lost, didn’t you?”

“Didn’t even stand a single chance against them actually.”

\---

Seulgi managed to win over Irene’s family with little difficulties by the time they were about to return to the city. Jisoo had clung onto Seulgi the entire time while they sent them off at the station, clearly not wanting to let go. Seulgi smiled and patted Jisoo’s head, telling her that she was more than welcome to visit them for a few days before she had to fly back for classes. Jisoo beamed at the suggestion.

“Joohyun, when you’re done with Seulgi, can I have her?”

“What?!” Irene moved to stand in between the two, possessively moving Seulgi behind her.

“Just kidding. My god, Joohyun. You really are a lost cause.” Jisoo shook her head while their parents laughed at their youngest’s antics.

“Come and visit us anytime you like, Seulgi. You’re always welcomed in our home.”

Mr Bae patted Seulgi’s back and she was beyond delighted.  She bowed deeply to Irene’s parents, thanking them again and again for their hospitality in the past few days.

They did one last group hug before entering the station, promising to visit again soon.

***

Seulgi returned to work feeling more sluggish than usual the following week, it was difficult to get herself out of ‘holiday mode’ as Irene had put it especially after spending an entire week lounging around the house and going on dates with her girlfriend. Seulgi fondly recalled waking up on Christmas morning with Irene in her arms, the latter had fallen asleep in the guestroom with her after insisting on counting down to the holiday with Seulgi because it was their first Christmas together.

Sighing, she plopped down on her seat and got ready for work. She looked at the empty seats across from hers and sighed again, Joy and Seungwan had yet to return from their holiday and she would be alone on her island for the next few days.

She kept herself busy with finalising the draft reports from her previous fieldworks. It seemed that Jessica had worked throughout her time off and returned the draft reports with comments and corrections. Seulgi  wasn’t even surprised and got to it right away. Even though she could afford to take the previous week off, they still had a tight deadline to meet and it was coming up soon. She wanted to finalise everything before Taeyeon and Jessica returned so that they could move onto the next part of their work without wasting anymore time.

Work eventually returned to normal, everybody came back fully recharged after their respective holidays. New job assignments were given out for the coming quarters of the new year and they started the preparation process right away. Seulgi, being a team leader now, was assigned her own small team of two juniors - their newest recruits, Hyejin and Wheein. Joy and Seungwan were both in-charged of their own teams as well.

Seulgi had previously gone on one fieldwork with the two before the new year. Hyejin and Wheein, while they appear to be playful rascals who loved nothing more than to have fun, were surprisingly professional and well behaved when they needed to be, much to Seulgi’s relief. She was still uncertain of her abilities to lead a team so having obedient juniors who worked well together was a welcome relief to her. She suspected that Jessica had put the three of them in a team on purpose, knowing that Seulgi would be needing competent juniors to back her up and to give her some kind of confident boost the same way team Super Rookies had been for Yoona and Seohyun the year before.

With her new position as a full time team leader, Seulgi’s work schedule got even busier than before. Ever since the new year had begun, Seulgi had barely been able to meet with Irene, who was also busy coordinating a new project herself. Irene’s schedule eventually settled down after a month or so but Seulgi’s was unpredictable as ever, thanks to their boss who was working hard in securing new company engagements to further expand their little company. Jessica was getting stressed trying to figure out how to allocate manpower because the addition of the new job assignments caused them to be severely understaffed.

Their boss proudly announced a few months later, after their manpower problem had been stabilised, that they had been contracted by a blue chip, multinational company to review their internal workings from top to bottom which was apparently part of the requirements set by their headquarters back in Amsterdam. It was expected to be a behemoth of a fieldwork, possibly very rushed and highly stressful. The fee they would be charging them was, obviously, quite handsome - probably the reason why their boss was so happy with herself for closing the deal with them.

Seulgi would be lying if she said she was hoping to be chosen to be a part of the team. Her schedule was packed enough as it is and it had already cost her multiple dates with Irene since the new year started about three months ago. As much as she knew that that fieldwork was a good opportunity to gain experience and exposure to the inner workings of a big company, she wasn’t sure if it was worth sacrificing her private time for.

She had been chosen along with Yoona and the rest of the usual team. At least Jessica had picked members who got along well with one another and weren’t awkward. Should the fieldwork be as stressful as anticipated, they would be needing a lot of support from within the group and also people who weren’t afraid to crack jokes at inappropriate times to relieve any tension.

Irene had not been particularly happy when Seulgi texted her about the new work assignments, Seulgi could feel it in her replies that the older girl was probably huffing and pouting at her desk across the city, trying hard not to be too disappointed. Seulgi was starting to understand what Taeyeon had meant by when she told her to be smart in her choices and to work hard for their relationship if she wanted it to last because they were working in completely different environments, the time they have to meet would be limited. Irene was working the standard 9 to 5 job while officially, Seulgi was too but they rarely get to go home on time - working overtime was a norm for consultants. Irene had more free time than Seulgi did in general and it could get frustrating for Irene because she couldn’t see her girlfriend as frequently as she wanted to.

Seulgi also had the added burden of having to travel to wherever their clients were with the minimal notice, sometimes as little as one day - Seulgi could be half way across the country within the next 24 hours. It was something that she had been praying hard not to happen and was lucky enough to avoid it entirely since they started dating. Almost all of her fieldworks were within the general vicinity of their city.

She recalled an incident where their boss had summoned Taeyeon overseas for a month. Needless to say, Jessica had been extra grumpy during her absence and was noticeably clingy when the latter had returned, to the extent of completely abusing her power by benching Taeyeon in the office. It was only when Taeyeon complained about being bored did Jessica assigned her to supervise one of the upcoming fieldworks, but not before throwing a tantrum that she simply had missed her in front of everybody, an occurrence that was rarer than a pearl aqua green moon. 

***

As soon as the behemoth fieldwork began, Seulgi saw more and more of her team members and less and less of Irene. Time was not on their side. They were only given a little over two months to work with - and it included doing everything from gathering information from their client, collecting documents, completing their working papers, clearing review points and submitting them to the client for another round of reviewing and clearing. Mission impossible, Joy had called it, since they had about over 200 working papers to complete but Yoona assured them that they would come out of this in one piece, she had absolute faith in her members. 

The first week passed in a blur and the second went by even faster. Seulgi barely registered what was happening before she realised two weeks had come and gone. She didn’t even noticed that she hadn’t called her girlfriend once the entire time until Irene texted to ask if they were still going to dinner that night.

“Shit..” Seulgi cursed under her breath.

“Is everything ok?” Seohyun, being seated beside her, leaned over to take a look at Seulgi’s work, worried that something might have gone wrong.

Yoona’s eyes widened when Seulgi said no, fearing that whatever the younger girl was fretting over was work related. Her eyes widened even more after Seulgi explained.

“You forgot? What do you mean you forgot?” 

“How can you forget?” Seungwan’s eyes went wide, looking like they were going to pop out of their sockets at any time.

“Seulgi! Did you at least text her? Or gave her a call this morning?” Joy asked incredulously. 

“Yes? I mean…” Seulgi paused and scrolled through their conversation. It didn’t take very long for her to finish. She had barely replied to any of Irene’s messages throughout the course of the week and the chat log didn’t have anything registered for the day except for Irene’s message a few minutes earlier. “..I’m screwed.” she buried her face into her palms.

“My cousin has the patience of a Buddha. Go, give her a call. You can still fix things. Don’t stay late today. That goes for all of you. It’s Friday and it’s our second week here. From what I can see, we’re making good progress so I say we go home early today.” Taeyeon finished firmly. Her team had been overworked in the past two weeks, sometimes going home after ten. Dark circles were starting to become visible under their eyes and poor Seungwan looked like she could pass out at any moment. 

“Right on!! You’re the best!” Joy fist pumped and Taeyeon laughed, reaching out to give Joy a high five.

“Once Seulgi gets back we can pack up and go.”

Seulgi didn’t need to be told twice and excused herself to make a phone call.

_ Please pick up. Please pick up. Please pic- _

“Seulgi?”

“Joohyun-ah..”

“So..you’re still alive.” Irene said dryly and Seulgi flinched. “Let me guess? You completely forgot about our date today? Of all the days, Seulgi. We’ve been planning this for weeks and I even reminded you yesterday.”

“I’m so sorry, Hyun.”

There was a moment of silence, Seulgi was unsure of what to say. She heard Irene sigh, she was probably pinching the bridge of her nose, eyes screwed shut, trying not to get too upset that Seulgi forgot her birthday and also the fact that that was their first conversation in two weeks.

“Come over for dinner later.”

Her tone was soft and calm, a little too calm and Seulgi was trying very hard to keep her cool because it was scaring her. She gulped before replying that she would be there before eight.

“Okay. See you later, Seulgi.”

“Hyun?” 

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Later, Seulgi.”

“Okay..”

Seulgi returned to their work base with her head hung low. Seohyun scooted over to ask how it went and Seulgi honestly didn’t know.

“Good luck, little one.” Taeyeon patted her back before the team was dismissed for the day. She then turned to the rest of the team and barred them from working over the weekend. She was surprised when Irene texted her last Saturday complaining about what a slave driver she was by having the team work on weekends. To be fair, Taeyeon wasn’t aware that the members had agreed among themselves to work throughout the weekend to buy themselves more time during weekdays. Taeyeon, being a responsible supervisor who didn’t want to let her team suffer by themselves, went back to work with them, much to Jessica’s displeasure. 

Giving her supervisor two thumbs up, Seulgi made her way to a nearby bakery before heading towards the subway station.

***

Irene was greeted by the sight of her girlfriend trying to light the candle on a slice of cake she was balancing on her palm when she opened her front door. Seulgi, who was focused on not dropping the cake, jumped slightly when Irene cleared her throat and quickly stuffed the lighter into her pocket. Giving Irene her best smile, she started singing the birthday song, in the hallway right outside of Irene’s apartment.

Seulgi stepped forward and brought the cake up to Irene when she was nearing the end of the song, hoping that she would blow out the candle. She did and Seulgi released a breath she didn’t realise she was holding. Irene’s eyes softened and Seulgi knew she wasn’t as angry anymore. Carefully balancing the cake, she closed the door behind her with her free hand followed Irene into the house. 

Setting her things down, she went up to Irene and pulled her into a hug. Irene didn’t even resist. She tucked herself under Seulgi’s chin almost instantly, having missed the younger girl in that short amount of time.

“Happy birthday, Joohyun-ah. I’m so sorry I forgot.”

“Seulgi-ah..what am I going to do with you?” Seulgi gave her a squeeze and could feel Irene smiling against her neck. “You stink.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I mean you literally stink.”

“Oh..we walked around the factory a lot today..so yeah.”

“Idiot...”

“I know.”

“I missed you.”

“Me too. And I’m sorry for ignoring you.”

“Don’t do that again.” Irene pulled away slightly and jabbed Seulgi’s shoulder. It didn’t hurt at all but that didn’t stop Seulgi from feigning hurt with an exaggerated expression to match. Irene rolled her eyes and pushed her away, only to be tugged back and soon she was pressed against Seulgi again, her arms naturally finding their way around Seulgi’s neck.

Irene was grinning, it was clear that she was forgiven. Irene was always quick to forgive, couldn’t bear stay angry at Seulgi for long no matter how gloriously she had screwed up, something Seulgi didn’t take for granted and appreciated very much.

“I won’t. I promise.” Seulgi leaned in for a kiss before scurrying away when she saw Irene’s hand was aiming for her bum. 

“Get back here, Kang. I’m not done with you!” Irene yelled in between giggles.

\---

“Wow she let you off the hook just like that?”

“I know..I know..I don’t deserve her. I know.”

\---


	10. Chapter 10

 

As the fieldwork progressed, the stress was starting to get to everybody on the team. They seldom joked while they worked, but instead were all quiet and serious, each focused on their portion and determined to finish it in time. Even the usually cheerful Taeyeon had become too quiet, often found frowning as she worked through reviewing all the working papers the team sent her. Everybody was getting anxious as the clock kept ticking and their work felt never ending.

In the beginning, the fieldwork had seem manageable because most of the client’s personnels were rather cooperative. But as the days passed they slowly became disinterested in helping the team of consultants who were constantly bugging them for answers and documents and resorted to sending them around the company to look for the wrong people just for kicks. One would push the responsibility to the other and the ball kept getting tossed around until eventually, nobody would know who was actually in charged of that particular process. It frustrated them to no end.

Seulgi became easily stressed as she was always anxious of not being able to finish her work and was constantly going through her mental checklist of things she had yet to do. Her daily checklist included things like what documents did the clients still owed her and who had she not spoken to for the working paper that she needed to do. It also didn’t help that the client’s personnels were being difficult and uncooperative, effectively putting a big dent in their schedule as the days rolled by. 

She was constantly buried in her work, even on weekends. They were working late on most nights and even if they were able to go home early, Seulgi would end up collapsing on the bed without bothering about washing up sometimes because she was too tired. Seulgi had even asked Irene if it was okay to postpone their first anniversary celebration because things were getting too much for her to handle. Irene, being her ever understanding self, agreed.

“It’s alright, Seulgi. I understand. We’ll celebrate once everything is over. There’s no point to it if you’re stressed out and cannot enjoy it anyway..”

Seulgi knew Irene was worried about her, about them. Unlike the first time where it simply slipped her mind, Seulgi had been intentionally avoiding her like a plague in the last couple of weeks. She was always either stressed or tired and it was affecting her mood, making her grumpy and cranky. Everything seemed to tick her off easily. Seulgi was aware of it but she couldn’t help it. The fieldwork was stressing her out and it made her miserable.  And it was because of that that she didn't dare have Irene anywhere near her in case she snapped at her and they end up quarreling over something trivial and stupid.

Seulgi just wanted everything to go away and to be left alone until the fieldwork was over. But Irene was not going to let her go that easily.

“Seulgi..”

“No..don’t. Ju-just leave me alone please. I don’t want to sna-”

“Seulgi, I miss you. Let me make you dinner, please? A good meal will help.”

Seulgi sighed and agreed, too tired to deny Irene of anything. Irene came over to her apartment in record speed after they hung up the phone and pulled her into a tight hug the moment Seulgi opened the door for her. Seulgi melted into the embrace, finally feeling a bit of comfort after a string of stressful days and not seeing the one she loved.

“I missed you..” Seulgi mumbled as she buried her face in the crook of Irene’s neck.

“I know. Lets take a look at you.” Irene pulled back a little to inspect Seulgi and her heart ached looking at her lethargic girlfriend. Gone was the cheerful girl from before and in her stead, replaced by a languishing figure with bloodshot eyes and dark circles from lack of sleep, she even looked like she lost a bit of weight. “My poor baby..” Irene brushed Seulgi’s unkempt hair out of her face and pulled her in for a long kiss, their first in weeks.

“Let me take care of you, Seulgi. Please don’t push me away.”

***

Irene was appalled at the number of instant noodle wrappers that were in the trash bin while she was preparing dinner and raised a brow, shooting a look at the younger girl. Seulgi had smiled sheepishly at her, giving her excuses like they were easier to cook and she didn’t have the time or energy to whip up anything elaborate so instant noodles would have to do. That was all it took for Irene to look Seulgi in the eyes and announced that she would be staying with her until the behemoth fieldwork ended. If Seulgi would not or could not feed herself with proper food then Irene supposed it would be up to her to do it.

She agreed warily, unsure of how her stress levels and occasionally foul mood would affect Irene but at the same time, she was thrilled by the thought of being able to see Irene everyday for the next few weeks - being able to come home to her seemed like a dream.

Seulgi was banned from touching her laptop and work documents for the rest of the evening as they spent it cuddling on the couch while an a rerun of an old comedy was airing on tv but neither of them were paying attention to it. Irene was lazily running her fingers through Seulgi’s hair as they lay on the couch. Her attention was fixated on the girl curled up at her side, who in return was staring up at her, too.

“Yes?”

Irene bopped Seulgi’s nose.

“Nothing..have I told you that you have very beautiful eyes?”

“A few times..How about telling me something I don’t already know? Hmm?”

Irene replied while raising a brow and Seulgi took it as a challenge. Seulgi adjusted her position and propped herself up with her elbows.

“Hmm..”

“Got nothing?” Irene challenged.

“No, I just need to find my inspiration.”

“Really? Where did it go?” 

“It didn’t go anywhere, I just got lost in your eyes.” Seulgi finished and wiggled her brows.

“Oh my god, Kang Seulgi!” Irene grabbed the nearest throw pillow and shoved it into Seulgi’s face before bursting into fits of giggles. “That was terrible! Did you learn that from Taeyeon?”

\---

“...that...really was terrible.”

“Hey, this is a no judging zone.”

\---

Seulgi was woken up sometime into the night by notifications sounds from her phone. Squinting her eyes to adjust to the brightness of the room, she realised that they had fallen asleep on the couch. Slowly, she untangled herself from Irene to turn off the lights and the tv. She contemplated continuing to spend the night on the couch but saw that Irene’s head was rested on the armrest at a very awkward position.

_ Her neck is going to be so stiff tomorrow if she sleeps here some more.. _

But she didn’t want to wake her up either. Awkward position or not, Irene was sound asleep and Seulgi didn’t have the heart to wake her up. A light bulb went off in her head a little while later and Seulgi silently cheered at her own brilliance.

_ You can do this.. She’s pretty light. _

She slowly lifted Irene and carried her to the bedroom and tucked her in, thanking the gods that Irene didn’t stir from her slumber.

While work was still stressful, Seulgi found that her mood had improved along with her motivation to work when the new week started. No longer did she dread going to work each morning, reluctantly dragging her body out of bed to get ready to face the new day. Instead, she basically bounced out of bed feeling excited to head out for work. She started treating it like a daily quest from one of her games - to go out and do her best. Her reward? To come home to Irene each day, to have dinner with her, to kiss her goodnight and to wake up with Irene in her arms. It was such a simple thing but it made Seulgi so happy. Nothing could sour her mood, not even difficult clients.

_ Well..guess I was worried over nothing! I’m such a dumb dumb. _

And she could almost hear Irene’s voice in her head.

_ “That’s right, you idiot.” _

If the team saw any improvements in Seulgi’s mood, they didn’t comment on it right away. Seulgi seemed brighter and was more motivated to work because she wanted to go home to Irene as soon as possible. She worked at a faster pace and the quality of her work had also improved, allowing her to spend less time in amended existing working papers and enabling her to move on to starting new ones, thus burning through her portion of the fieldwork with commendable speed and accuracy. 

Taeyeon was impressed with the improvement because she knew what was the driving force behind the once miserable little bear, Irene had told her of their living arrangements just so her cousin knew about her whereabouts. The power of love, she thought to herself before guffawing at her own cheesy thoughts. Taeyeon then let it slip one day while they were having lunch and it didn’t take the team long at all to start teasing Seulgi about it. Seulgi happily sat through it all, knowing full well that the light moment was a welcome relief to her friends who were just as stressed as she was.The conversations at their table were a mess as usual.

“So, Kang Seulgi..how does it feel to go home to your wife?”

“W-wife?! Wh-what wife?!”

"Your wife."

"I have a wife?"

"You have a wife."

"I do not have a wife."

"Guys...."

“Hey, Seulgi. Do you guys kiss each other goodbye before going to work in the morning? Wait, hold that thought. Do you and Jessica still do that, Taeyeon?”

“No, we work in the same place. There really is no point.”

“Must be awesome going home and dinner is already set on the table, huh Seulgi?”

“Ugh that sounds so nice. I want it, too! Seungwan-ah, let’s move in together after this is over.”

Seungwan choked on her food at the unexpected question and coughed while Seohyun gently patted her back. Joy handed her her drink and waited for Seungwan to settle down.

“I mean it.” Joy continued, Seungwan had stopped coughing and was blushing like mad. The others watched the couple silently. “Let’s find a place and move in together.”

Seungwan blinked a few times before shyly agreeing and everybody cheered, causing the other patrons of the shop to stare at them - not that they cared. They even gave a toast to the two of them, as though Joy had just proposed. Joy hooked her arm around Seungwan’s shoulders and pulled her closer, Seungwan burying her face into Joy’s neck instantly to hide her blush. Using her free arm, Joy lifted her drink and joined the toast.

***

However difficult the fieldwork was, it eventually passed after what seemed like an eternity and the team could be seen slouching at a table in a corner of a restaurant where Jessica had arrived earlier to secure. The restaurant apparently didn’t accept reservations on Friday nights. They were celebrating the end of the nightmarish fieldwork. All of them were just laughing in disbelief that the longest two months in their lives had finally passed. They just sat there staring into space, unbothered about looking at the menu laid in front of them. It wasn’t until Taeyeon complained about being hungry did they reluctantly sat upright and picked the booklet up.

Seulgi didn’t think that they would make it out in one piece but there they were, very much in one piece but also exhausted beyond belief. The team received an email from their boss earlier, stating that they had been granted a day off the coming Monday, to thank them for their efforts and for pushing themselves to the limits in ensuring that the job for their most important client to date was done up to par and was completed on time.

“Ms Song  _ does _ have a heart! Bless. And here we thought she was just a money minded businesswoman.” Joy complained, not caring that their manager and supervisor were with them. It was after hours and she was tired so she was going to say whatever she wanted to and not be bothered.

“Joy, don’t say that. You’ve known her long enough, she’s not that bad.”

“True..but sometimes it really does feel like she doesn’t care about us, with all these new jobs coming in and us being understaffed and all..”

“It’s a thing that happens in most companies our size..don’t hold a grudge against our boss. She’s nice.” Seohyun tried to convince the younger girl that their boss was not as cold hearted as she might have seemed in the last few months.

“Sure she is…” Joy was already disinterested in the topic. She rested her cheek on Seungwan’s shoulder and leaned on her, grumbling about being hungry and not knowing what to order. Seungwan patted her head and decided for them.

Irene had joined their celebratory dinner that day, too. The team yelled ‘Ms Bae’ and waved excitedly when Irene walked in and the said girl blushed because literally everybody in the restaurant was staring at her. She quickly made her way to their table and was seated beside Seulgi, giving her a shove because she yelled, too. Seulgi merely laughed it off. 

“Wow you’re like some celebrity, Joohyun-ah!” Taeyeon teased and Irene sent a glare her way, not that it affected Taeyeon either because she stuck her tongue out at her cousin.

_ Family members must be immune to her glare. _

Seulgi shrugged and turn her attention back to the menu she was sharing with Irene. Jessica rolled her eyes at the her wife and called the waiter over to place their orders, fearing that they might never get to eat when everybody was getting distracted so easily - their ability to focus and to pay attention had clearly been used up by the fieldwork.

\---

“You guys sure eat a lot..”

“It’s a good to relieve stress just so you know.”

\---


	11. Chapter 11

 

Life returned to its usual pace once the fieldwork ended, Seulgi found herself having to get used to the relatively new sense of freedom she had now that she didn’t have to rush or be stressed out over that fieldwork anymore. It took a few days to fully adjust, everybody agreed that they somehow felt a bit lost because they had nothing to do all of a sudden after weeks of being on a tight schedule.

Ms Song had graciously told Jessica to bench the entire team for a few weeks, to allow them some time to catch their breath and to fully recharge before they were assigned to a new wave of fieldworks for the coming third quarter of the year. So the team of dumb dumbs kept themselves busy by tidying up their respective desks. Piles and piles of paperwork from their other fieldworks needed to be filed and put away, not to mention shredded should the need arise.

Seulgi kept herself busy by helping and teaching Wheein and Hyejin anything that they didn’t know. They had been going on fieldwork with Jessica in the past few weeks and they were both very intimidated by their manager. Seulgi smiled at them, she saw a bit of herself in the two rascals. How could she forget that she too was once like them, fearful of their resident Ice Queen. They didn’t even believe her when Seulgi assured them that Jessica was actually a very warm and funny person underneath that icy exterior.

_ Sometimes I think Jessica is just scaring all these newbies for kicks. _

With the fieldwork over with, Irene stopped staying over daily. Seulgi was almost sad when Irene packed up her things to go. She stood by the door of her bedroom and watched as Irene examined her little backpack for anything that she might have missed. It wasn’t like she had a lot to pack anyway, her clothes already took up about one quarter of Seulgi’s closet space as did Seulgi’s in Irene’s. 

“Must you go?” 

Irene turned around to see Seulgi pouting at her, rocking on the balls of her feet as she restlessly watched on. The younger girl trudged her way across the short distance, still pouting. When she was close enough, Seulgi reach to take one of Irene’s hands and just held it

_ My clingy baby _

Irene shook her head at the sight of her girlfriend. Seulgi clearly wasn’t going to let go of her hand anytime soon as she held on and followed Irene wherever she went to retrieve her belongings. When they finally got to the front door, Seulgi held on tighter.

“Seulgi, we’ll be seeing each other tomorrow. Have you forgotten?”

“No..but..” Seulgi trailed off and had her gaze casted on the floor.

“But?” Irene tilted her head and looked up, searching for Seulgi’s eyes.

“This house is going to feel so empty without you..” Seulgi’s reply came out barely a whisper.

“Seul..” 

“You know what?” 

Irene jumped slightly at Seulgi’s sudden outburst. Seulgi looked serious, she had her game face on.

_ Be bold! _

“Let’s move in together. Like Joy and Seungwan, ya know?” Irene gasped and Seulgi continued, “I mean, I know this is going to sound a little dramatic but this past month living with you has been great. I love it - coming home to you everyday. You being the last person I see before I fall asleep and the first person I see when I wake up. I really like that and I love being able to see you everyday. I love how we sometimes just sprawled across the couch doing nothing and it’s fun, or how sometimes you let me help you in the kitchen, or when you tell me about your work face to face instead of over the phone and oh I don’t know? When you just make yourself comfortable on my lap while I play my games? And I’m just rambling right now but I do have a point. The point is that this place was just a regular house and well, I’ve always thought that it was because I live alone but I see it now..” Seulgi took a deep breath, eyes never leaving Irene’s before continuing, “It’s not the house. It’s you. My home..is you. So what do you say?”

“Yes.” Her reply was quick and simple. Irene’s eyes were glistening and Seulgi mentally patted herself on the back for not chickening out of her plan when Irene threw herself into Seulgi’s arms and pulled her into a searing kiss.

\---

“I knew it. There was no way you two could’ve continued living separately.”

“Well, thank you for knowing us so well.”

\---

House hunting, according to Joy, could either be fun or stressful - depending on how they were going to handle it and who their real estate agent was. Joy and Seungwan had little problems with theirs. They spent a few weekends looking at houses around a neighbourhood they both liked with their agent before settling on a modest two-bedroom apartment about a 15-minute drive from their workplace. They had highly recommended the agent to Seulgi, who was apparently a good friend of Jessica’s and apparently, she had helped Irene find her current place a couple of years back.

The couple spent a few days discussing the essentials before starting their house hunt. They talked about things like the all important budget, location and what type of house they were looking for. Irene was quite worried if Seulgi could cope with the rent because she knew that the younger girl’s pay wasn’t exactly as handsome as she was but Seulgi assured her it was fine. She could handle it.

“I’m smart, Hyun. Don’t worry about it! Besides, Ms Song said we’re going to get another increment soon.”

Only when they had finalised the details did they give the agent a call, asking if she was free to meet up and they could go over what they had in mind for their future home. The real estate agent agreed enthusiastically, Seulgi could feel her smile and energy all the way over the phone. She sounded like she had a pretty smile, Seulgi commented off handedly and earned herself a glare from Irene only to have her confirm a while later that yes, their would-be real estate agent was a very bubbly person and had a very pretty smile. Her eyes apparently disappeared into two crescent shaped lines when she smiled.

When they arrived at the office for their first meeting, Seulgi could tell right away which was the one they had spoken to over the phone because Irene was right, she did have a pretty smile and her eyes looked like they smiled when she did. She greeted Irene with much familiarity, giving her a hug and a pat, asking how she was before turning to Seulgi.

“Hi, I’m Tiffany and you must be Seulgi! I’ve heard a lot about you from Taetae and Jessi and I’m so excited to be able to help you two find your first home together! Why don’t we get started? Oh before we do, can I get you two anything? Coffee? Tea?” 

“Uhm..Tea is fine, Joohyun doesn’t drink coffee. Thank you. Very nice to meet you, by the way.” 

“Very nice to meet you, too! Why don’t you two take a seat over there and I’ll be right back.”

Tiffany pointed to one of the discussion rooms in the office and left the two, headed to what Seulgi assumed was the pantry. Irene nudged Seulgi with her elbow, beckoning her to follow. Seulgi was looking a bit lost as she processed what just happened. Tiffany had came out a bit strong and Seulgi hadn’t had the lead time to process the details yet.

“Bubbly, isn’t she? You’ll get used to it, don’t worry.” Irene teased when she saw that Seulgi was still in a bit of a blur.

“I’m just a little lost. Who’s Taetae again?”

“Taeyeon. The three of them actually go way back.” Irene explained and suddenly everything made so much sense. 

Tiffany returned a short while later with their drinks and they started their meeting.

***

Tiffany was as good as they said she was - they being Joy, Seungwan and Jessica. She found them the perfect home in practically no time at all. The moment Irene and Seulgi stepped into the apartment they knew it was the one, even though it was the very first one they were suppose to view that weekend. 

Irene was squealing the moment she saw how brightly lit the apartment was by natural lighting. Seulgi flinched and covered her ears as the empty house echoed her girlfriend’s excited squeals while Irene pranced around the empty living room in delight. As soon as they entered the apartment, they saw that the opposite wall was actually a huge glass sliding door that allowed plenty of sunlight into the house. Seulgi could see it in Irene’s eyes that this would be the one. They probably wouldn’t even need to inspect the entire house, Irene was sold the moment she stepped into the bright room.

Tiffany gave them a brief tour of the two bedroom apartment and let the couple look around by themselves while she waited in the living room. She smiled at the sight of the two, Irene was dragging Seulgi around and they were already discussing where would the furniture go. Seulgi was drawing invisible squares to show Irene where the sofa could go and where the tv cabinet could be placed to avoid potential glare from the sun. 

Things got serious when Seulgi fished out a measuring tape from her pocket and started measuring the area. She even took down notes as she went around the house, inspecting everything from the plumbing to the network coverage - holding her phone up in the air as she went from room to room, trying to view some videos in the highest definition to see if they would play smoothly.

Irene then dragged Seulgi into the kitchen. It was a modest-sized kitchen, just enough space for two or three people to work in simultaneously. Irene was more than satisfied with it, already thought of where would the fridge and oven be placed. Seulgi was more than happy to be dragged around the house. Irene was at her most adorable at the moment with her childlike excitement over their would-be home, talking to Seulgi at the speed of light.

_ My tiny Rap God. _

“Seulgi-ah! What do you think if we put the bed here? And the closet can go over there! Oh!” Irene hopped to the next spot. “The dressing table can go over here! Can you imagine it, Seulgi?”

Seulgi, who was taking photos of the room, put her phone down and beamed at Irene.

“Yes, yes I can. Hyun, can you stand over there and I’ll take a picture of you.”

Seulgi pointed to the balcony outside the master room. Irene skipped over and posed for a few shots before dragging Seulgi out to the next room. They spent about an hour in the empty house, almost forgetting that Tiffany was with them. They apologised for making her wait but she waved them off, the satisfactory from seeing them so happy with the house was more than enough for her.

“This is the one!” 

“Are you sure you two don’t want to look at the other apartments in our itinerary? There might be better ones.” Tiffany tried to reason with them, not wanting them to jump to conclusions.

“No, we’re sure. We’ll take this one.” Seulgi smiled reassuringly at her and gave her a thumbs up. “Thanks for helping us find this one. It’s great!”

“Alright then, if you’re sure. We’ll head back to the office and get the paperwork done.”

***

“I can’t believe we’re shopping for furniture, Seulgi! For our home! Ooh!! What do you think of that sofa set over there?” Irene went over and plopped down on a black two-seater sofa. Seulgi puffed her cheeks, thinking of the pros and cons of getting a leather sofa. One the plus side, it looked good but it would be a pain to sit on during the hot summer days, not to mention it was sort of overpriced. That was all it took for Irene to get up and made her way to the next sofa set on display.

Seulgi would occasionally stop Irene in her tracks just to her picture. Her phone’s photo gallery was quickly filling up with photos of Irene while they shopped. Irene was being utterly adorable, bubbling with excitement as they looked around the vast, Swedish furniture shop. Irene was tugging on Seulgi’s arm the entire time, pointing and leading her to anything that caught her attention. Seulgi thought that she might not make it, her heart was so full.

_ She has no business looking so adorable today. _

Furniture shopping turned out to be much more fun than either of them thought it would be. It was truly something Seulgi would love to experience again with Irene in the future when they moved into a place that was truly theirs. Irene had insisted that Seulgi picked the furniture but Seulgi was fine with letting Irene choose, reasoning that she was contented with being able to live in a house surrounded by furniture that was chosen by the one she loved. Irene went red and gave Seulgi a shove, head lowered to hide her blush. Seulgi laughed and wrapped an arm around Irene’s shoulders, pulling her close as they continued their shopping.

It took a few weeks for their home to take shape since they could only work on it on weekends but it progressed steadily. Seulgi and Irene would spend most of their weekends in their new home, assembling the furniture and arranging and rearranging them until they found a spot that they both agreed on. 

They even took it upon themselves to repaint the walls. Irene thought it would be fun so Seulgi went along with it. Because it did seem like a lot of fun. Dressed in jeans and shirts they wouldn’t mind getting paint on - Irene in one of Seulgi’s old oversized t-shirt that she actually stole from her brother and Seulgi clad in an old flannel and topped with a baseball cap, the two of them set to work. Seulgi volunteered to climb the ladder to reach the top of the walls since their roller brush wasn't long enough and Irene was afraid of heights.

That eventually led to Seulgi accidentally spilling paint all over Irene, causing a huge mess, when she toppled it from the ladder she was climbing. The can had missed Irene but paint was splashed all over her. Seulgi apologised while laughing and Irene was not having it. She was dead set on giving Seulgi a hug and covering her in paint, too. Seulgi made a game of trying to get away but it was futile - Irene always got what she wanted and in the end, Seulgi was in a mess too. Irene even drew a heart on Seulgi’s cheek.

They cleaned their hands quickly and fetched their phones to take a few commemoration shots before Irene dragged Seulgi into the shower with her, determined to wash the paint off before it dries.

***


	12. Chapter 12

"Hey, Seulgi. What are you looking at?”

“N-nothing!” Seulgi jumped when she felt Joy was peeking over her shoulder and slammed her laptop’s lid shut.

“I don’t believe you. I need backup. Seungwan-ah, open her laptop while I grab her.”

Seulgi made an attempt to cradle her laptop and get away but Joy was quicker. She wheeled Seulgi’s chair away from her desk and put her in a headlock while the girl was still seated. Seulgi made some undignified noises while her arms flailed everywhere as she tried to free herself from the giant’s vice grip. Seungwan skirted around their desks and opened the said laptop.

“What’s her password?” Seungwan turned around to ask Joy when she saw the welcome screen but Joy didn’t know it either.

“Try Irene’s birthday. March 29th.”

Taeyeon suggested from her seat, already making her way towards the trio.

“I’m in!”

The laptop’s screen loaded and Seungwan’s eyes widened when she saw the familiar robin egg blue on the website.

“S-Seulgi..this is..”

“Whoah!”

Joy gawked at the screen and let Seulgi go, joining Seungwan as they looked at the page Seulgi was at. Seulgi scrambled to retrieve her laptop but got held back again, this time by Seohyun who was intrigued by the commotion they caused earlier and the rest of the team soon followed.

_Oh dear God…_

Seulgi sat in her chair and looked at them helplessly as they marveled at what was displayed on the screen. Taeyeon even whistled when she saw it, turned back to Seulgi and gave her a thumbs up.

“You have good taste, little one. Should’ve known since you are dating my cousin, not that I’m biased or anything.”

“R-really? Is that one okay?”

“Okay??” Yoona asked in disbelief. “Seulgi, I’d marry you if you proposed with that ring. It’s gorgeous and it fits Irene well.”

Seulgi sighed in relief, she had been so worried about picking the wrong ring for Irene ever since she started surveying them. It was much more tedious than expected, shopping for a ring. Seulgi even had to sneakily borrow one of Irene’s rings, one that she didn’t wear often, and brought it to some random jewelry shop to ask what size it was because she had no idea how to tell and she didn’t trust those methods she found online. Seulgi snapped out of her little world when she felt somebody pat her back. It was Jessica.

“Look at you, all grown up and shopping for engagement rings. I’m really proud of you, Seulgi. Really.” She smiled at Seulgi and it was so sincere that Seulgi teared up.

“Th-thanks.” Seulgi beamed and rubbed her eyes for a bit.

“So, what made you want to propose? I mean, you’re still pretty young. How long have you two been going out again?” Taeyeon pulled up a chair next to Seulgi. Everybody followed suit and they formed a circle around Seulgi’s desk.

“Our second anniversary just passed and Joohyun has been hinting since I can remember that she wanted to get married before she turned 30, which is next March, which, you know, is about a little over half a year away so now would be a good time to start planning for it…” Seulgi paused and was surprised to find six pairs of eyes staring attentively at her, Seohyun motioned for her to continue. “I mean, I’ve been wanting to, with or without her hints. I mean, I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anybody else. She’s the one, you know? S-she’s the only one and god she is amazing. I..” Seulgi’s voice cracked as she swallowed hard, trying to keep it together but it didn’t work as she lost it when she blurted the rest of her sentence. “I love her so much.”

Seulgi buried her face into her palms and cried as she thought of the last two years with her love, how lucky she was to have found somebody who was so kind and gentle with her. Somebody who was literally always there for her every step of the way, who was so, so patient with her, so loving and forgiving. She cried because she was thankful that, out of all the people on this vast Earth, she got to call Irene hers.

“Seulgi..”

Jessica came over to give her a hug and soon Seulgi was enveloped in a big group hug. They broke the hug when Seulgi had calmed down and each of them gave her a pat on the back. Jessica stood beside her, placed an arm over her shoulders and patted her arm. Seulgi looked up at her with puffy eyes and smiled.

“Thanks, guys.”

“It’s okay. We’re practically family now. And I do mean it literally. We’re going to be cousins-in-law soon. Am I right, Taengoo?”

“Right on!”

\---

“Wow you really love mom, huh?”

“I still do.” Seulgi smiled as she glanced at her wife who was in the kitchen preparing dinner, her back facing them. She let out a dreamy sigh.

“Mom, I know what you’re thinking and please don’t go over and give her a back hug. You two are seriously so gross with the PDA.”

“I heard that!” Irene yelled from the kitchen.

“Well, Kang Yerim, good thing I’m your mom and you’re not the boss of me.” Seulgi finished smugly. Getting up from her seat in the living room, she strolled over to the kitchen and hugged her wife from the back.

Irene had jumped slightly when she felt a pair of hands snake around her waist but quickly relaxed and leaned back, resting her head on Seulgi’s shoulder. Seulgi smiled and kissed her temple before Irene stood upright again to continue cooking.

_Good lord, those two._

Yerim rolled her eyes at her parents. They had been together for almost 20 years and yet they always seemed to be in that honeymoon phase of a relationship. She shook her head and fished out her phone, ignoring whatever that was going on in the kitchen. She prayed that dinner would not be ruined with her mom distracting her mom, which apparently, was quite the achievement because a long time ago it was her Hyunnie mom who was always distracting her Seulgi mom.

+-+-+

“So mom, how did you end up proposing?”

Yerim asked while they were half way through dinner. Irene nudged her wife while Seulgi kept eating.

“Honey, are you not going to answer your daughter?”

“She’s your daughter, too, Hyun. You carried her.”

“Wow I feel so loved, moms.”

“You were there, you can answer, too.” Seulgi replied while chewing and Irene raised a brow.

“Honey, don’t talk with your mouthful.”

Seulgi whined and Yerim shook her head at her mother.

“Fine.” Seulgi rolled her eyes comically. “So....”

\---

Planning for a proposal was tougher than she thought, given that the one she was going to propose to was living in under the same roof as she was. She couldn’t even think of a place to hide the ring because she was paranoid that Irene would accidentally find it while she was looking for something or while she was cleaning the house.

She thought of every possible place to hide it but came up with nothing and resorted to asking Taeyeon if she would mind holding onto it for a while until the proposal day. Taeyeon agreed, of course, understanding fully how tough it was because she too was also already living with Jessica before she proposed. Taeyeon had a good laugh when Seulgi asked for the favour because she had entrusted her ring to Irene back then. Everything comes full circle, Taeyeon thought to herself.

To even begin planning it proved to be a challenge because she couldn’t do it at home and neither could she do it during working hours. So the best solution to the problem was she had lied a little to Irene that she needed to stay back late after work to finish some assignment Jessica had given her. And of course she had asked Jessica to cover for her in case Irene asked anything. Jessica coolly agreed.

Seulgi spent a few evenings in the office together with the usual team brainstorming for ideas and the right time to do it. So far, the best window of opportunity was roughly three weeks away when Irene and her team had to fly overseas for a few days to visit their suppliers’ factory. They were to conduct a review on a few of their suppliers, to ensure that the materials they produced were up to par for their projects.

The team agreed. While Irene was away, they could prepare for it and they didn’t need to be ultra careful and sneaky. In the meantime, Joy said a prayer for Seulgi in hopes that she wouldn’t accidentally spill the beans to Irene - Seulgi was the worse at keeping secrets from the older girl because a single look cast her way would reduce Seulgi to a stuttering mess, spewing out anything that came to her mind. Everyone agreed.

\---

“Yea..mom always has that effect on you. Whipped.”

Yerim feigned a cough while muttering the last word. Irene burst laughing and reached over the table to give her daughter a high five while Seulgi scoffed and continued doing the dishes.

\---

Before they could actually proceed with their plans, Seulgi told them that she needed to pay Irene’s parents a visit and asked for their blessings. They understood and put everything on hold while Seulgi made arrangements for a visit during a weekday. Seulgi needed to make a day trip to avoid arousing any suspicions from Irene. She needed to be back in the city by the time it was after work so she didn’t really have a lot of time.

“So, Seulgi. What brings you here? On such an odd day and are you wearing your work clothes?” Mrs Bae asked.

“Uhm..yea these are my work clothes. I needed Joohyun to think that I’m at work while I’m actually here because I have something important to ask the two of you.”

The three of them were in the Bae’s living room, the two Baes were seated on the loveseat while Seulgi sat at the corner of the three seater sofa next to it. She sat up straight and her posture was rigid. Her hands, tightly fisted, rested on her knees. She took a deep breath to calm herself before turning to Irene’s parents.

_Okay. Be bold._

“I would like to ask for your permission to marry Joohyun.”

Irene’s parents didn’t seem at all surprised, which was surprising to her.

“Well, I can’t say that we did not see this coming. Did we, dear?” Mrs Bae asked and he shook his head.

“No, we definitely saw this coming.” He turned his attention back to Seulgi and she sat even straighter. “Seulgi, I’ll be frank with you. You are not the longest relationship Joohyun has had to date.” He paused when he saw her posture hunched slightly, as though she deflated. “But I have to say you are one of the more committed ones Joohyun has been with so far, if not the most.”

“I know that I’m lacking in many areas but I’m going to work hard to improve on them because I want to be somebody that Joohyun can be proud of. Somebody that she can depend on for the rest of her life, even though I’m like three years younger.”

The Baes looked at her and smiled softly.

_Aah young love._

“Well, you don’t have to worry much about that. From what we hear from Joohyun, you’re doing just fine. She loves you just as you are.” Mr Bae reached out and patted Seulgi’s knee. “You have our blessings, Seulgi. Go. And make her happy.”

Seulgi beamed and stood up to give them a deep bow.

***

Seulgi whined like a child the night before Irene had to leave for work, even though she needed her to go so that she could start preparing. Seulgi practically clung onto her while Irene was packing, just like what she had done years ago before they moved in together. Irene shook her head and continued as if she wasn’t dragging her girlfriend everywhere she went.

“Seulgi, it’ll only be for a few days. I’ll be back by Friday.”

“But..Hyun, today is Saturday and Friday is like forever away!” Seulgi defended with a pout.

Irene sighed. Prying herself free, she turned to face Seulgi and raised a brow.

“Seulgi..”

Seulgi froze. Releasing Irene immediately, she slowly backed up with her hands raised as a sign of surrender. One did not simply mess with that tone of voice, it was a death wish.

“I’ll..uhm..let you pack. See ya.”

Seulgi jogged out of the room and plopped on the couch to play some video games. Irene went out to where Seulgi was after she was done and sat beside her, leaning on the younger girl like she always did.

“Seulgi…”

“Yes?”

“It’ll only be a few days..”

“I know. I just like making a fuss.”

Irene sat upright and looked at her in disbelief. Seulgi wiggled her brows and grinned. Irene scoffed and gave her a shove.

“Idiot..”

“Your idiot.”

Shaking her head, she gave Seulgi one last shove before adjusting her position to lie on Seulgi’s lap.

“Do you wanna watch a movie instead?”

“No, you’ll have to get up to pick one and I don’t want to move. Keep playing. I’ll watch.”

“Okay.”

And that was how they spent their last night together before they parted for a week.

***

“Are you sure this simple of a plan will do? Don’t you want to do it a bit..I don’t know, something more complicated and showy?” Joy asked Seulgi while they were finalising the plan for Friday.

“Knowing my luck, I’ll probably screw up and drop the ring somewhere. So I think simple is the way to go.”

“She has a point. Just don’t break any chairs, alright?” Jessica could barely stifle her laughter while remembering that poor chair in CCSJ.

“Ha. Ha. Taeyeon, do you have the ring with you?”

“Right here.” Taeyeon dug her bag, producing a small, black velvety box and passed it to Seulgi.

“Thanks. You know the plan for Friday right?”

“Yes, captain.” Taeyeon gave her an exaggerated salute and the rest followed.

“Thanks guys. I think we’re good to go for Operation Would U.”

—-

“What a name.”

“It served the purpose, Yerim.”

Irene smiled to herself watching their daughter tease her wife. Setting a plate of fruits on the coffee table, she sat down beside Seulgi and made herself comfortable leaning on her shoulder.

“Give your mom some credit, Yerim-ah.”

“...okay.”

—-

Irene was bouncing with excitement in her seat as the captain announced that they would soon be preparing for landing. She was finally home after a week abroad and she missed her Seulgi. They couldn’t talk a lot throughout the week because there was a bit of a time difference, Irene was three hours ahead. But it didn’t matter now, she was home and first thing she was going to do when she saw Seulgi later was to kiss her silly.

She fished out her phone and turned off the airplane mode when they landed, allowing her to receive whatever messages and notifications from when she was up in the air. She frowned when she saw Seulgi’s message, saying that something came up and Taeyeon would be picking her up from the airport instead and would be dropping her off at a place where they would be having their dinner. Irene sighed and slid her phone into her bag.

Customs and baggage claims didn’t take a very long time and Irene silently thanked the staff for their efficiency. It was a long flight and she was tired. All she wanted to do was to go home to Seulgi. She sighed again when she remembered that Seulgi wasn’t going to be picking her up.

Taeyeon spotted her with ease when she walked out to the gates. Greeting her cousin with a hug and her usual grin, the mischievous dimple showing, Taeyeon motioned for Irene to follow her to where the car park was.

“Where are we going?”

“Seulgi told me to tell you that it was a surprise. She wanted to do something nice for you since you’ve been out for so long. So you just sit tight and we’ll be there soon.”

Irene smiled to herself as she listened to Taeyeon’s explanation.

_My sentimental baby_

She spent the entire car ride looking out the window at the sky, looking forward to see what surprises were in store for her.

Irene’s eyes widened when Taeyeon pulled up at their destination. They were at an upscale hotel in the city centre and Taeyeon passed her car keys over to the valet.

“Come on.” She motioned Irene to follow again.

What is Kang Seulgi up to?

“Taeyeon, are you sure we’re at the right place?”

“Yea. Like I said, Seulgi wanted to do something nice.” Taeyeon stopped at the front desk and greeted the receptionist. “Hi, I’m here to check in under the name Kang Seulgi.”

“One moment please, miss.” He did a quick check to confirm the room Seulgi had booked and did the necessary procedures before passing the card keys to Taeyeon. “Your room is on the 20th floor, miss. The elevators are that way. Would you be needing a porter for your luggage?”

“Ah no, that won’t be necessary. Thank you. Joohyun, come on.”

Taeyeon led Irene to the elevators and passed the card keys to her. Irene accepted them with much confusion, her eyebrows furrowed.

“I need to go now, Jessica is waiting for me at home for dinner. Seulgi’s tying up some loose ends at fieldwork. She should be here soon. Why don’t you go up first?”

“B-but!”

“Have fun, Joohyun-ah!” Taeyeon turned and skipped away.

“But!”

Sighing in defeat, Irene guessed she had no other choice but to go to the room Seulgi had booked for them. And it turned out to be a suite. Irene entered the room and was greeted by a view of the setting sun over the river that ran across their city. Opening the glass sliding door, Irene stepped out into the cool autumn air to take some photos of the setting sun and to breathe in the fresh air from high ground. She went back in after a while and saw that there was a card placed on the bed. She recognised the handwriting instantly.

_‘Hi Hyun! Surprise! You’re probably wondering what on earth am I up to and I’m sure Taeyeon already told you. I want to do something nice for you. So why don’t you go soak in the tub for a bit to relax and I’ll meet you in the lobby at 7.30 and we’ll go get dinner. I heard the food here is great._

_See you later, my love!_

_K.S.G._

_(p/s: there’s a dress ready for you in the closet.)’_

“What are you up to, Kang Seulgi?”

It wasn’t their birthdays, or their anniversary of any kind. Did Seulgi get a promotion with a big pay jump while she was away? It was possible. Irene shrugged and headed for the closet to look for the dress.

***

Seulgi arrived about 15 minutes before time and lingered around the lobby, feeling restless and nervous. The plan was simple enough - dinner and then retreat to their room which would already have been decorated by her friends while they were having dinner and propose. Simple, easy and most importantly foolproof. The fear of screwing up an elaborate plan was real and Seulgi didn’t have the stomach to take that potential risk.

She spotted a decorative mirror and checked her appearance. She was dressed in all black, save for her jacket that was brown - a black turtleneck top matched with black pants. Fixing her freshly trimmed bangs, she turned her face side to side to make sure she looked presentable. Her hand unconsciously slipped into her pocket, just to feel the velvety texture of the box.

Seulgi turned around when she heard her name being called and Irene took her breath away. She was dressed in simple off-shoulder, black and white cocktail dress but she couldn’t have looked more beautiful.

_Seungwan helped picked a great dress._

Irene was walking towards her as fast as she could in heels. When Seulgi was close enough, Irene reached out cupped Seulgi’s face, pulling her down for a kiss, onlookers be damned. Seulgi felt Irene sigh into the kiss, her arms automatically finding their way around Seulgi’s neck. It was probably the longest they had gone without seeing each other after they moved in together.

Seulgi rested her forehead on Irene’s and beamed, Irene’s eyes disappearing into two lines as she mirrored Seulgi’s grin.

“Hey..”

“Hey.”

“You look really nice.”

“What are you up to, Kang Seulgi? And you cut your hair? It looks good on you.”

Irene pulled back and fixed Seulgi’s hair while the younger girl grinned, her eyes disappearing into two lines as well.

“Thanks. I just got a promotion and with you coming back, it’s the perfect excuse for a celebration.”

_Phew..okay. Good. Didn’t stutter._

“Really? Congratulations!” Irene pulled her down for another kiss. “My hardworking baby.”

“I think we better get going.” Seulgi glanced around when they separated. “We’re going to be late for our reservation.” Seulgi offered her arm and Irene naturally hooked hers over it. “Shall we?”

***

“Alright people. We have roughly an hour or so to finish setting up everything so let’s get to it. Yoong, I want the cameras up within half an hour and Seohyun, make sure the connection is stable when we move the monitor to the next room. Joy, Seungwan, you two get the pictures up and try not to mess up the sequence. I think Seulgi already labelled them on the back. Chop chop! I want this room set up 5 minutes ago.”

“Yes, captain!” the gang saluted and got to work.

Taeyeon stood in the middle of the room and supervised the entire operation while Jessica and a new member of their group were downstairs in the restaurant spying on the couple - in-charged of giving them updates should they make a move so that Seulgi would not be seen as acting suspicious by fidgeting with her phone all evening.

They finished setting up in less than an hour, much to Taeyeon’s delight. The cameras were in place to capture everything and they would have Seungwan hide somewhere with a camcorder for backup - just because she was the smallest and easiest to hide - in case their main cameras malfunctioned.

Once they were done, they moved to their base of operations - the room next door - and turned on their laptop for final checks.

***

Seulgi listened as Irene chattered on throughout dinner. The food was delicious but she didn’t notice it, not when her full attention was on Irene. Irene was retelling her stories from her trip abroad, gesturing animatedly while occasionally readjusting Seulgi’s jacket that slipped off her shoulders. Irene had shivered the moment they stepped into the in-house restaurant and Seulgi noticed, taking off the jacket and draping it over her shoulders without a word.

She was aware that she was staring at Irene. She had been since their reunion in the lobby. There was something about Irene today, she couldn’t quite put a finger on it. Was it because she hadn’t seen her in a long time? Perhaps. It was another mysterious mystery Seulgi would have to solve another day because she had more important matters on hand. She took a glance at her wrist watch, mentally calculating the amount of lead time her friends still needed before they could go up to their room.

_They should be done by now. It’s been almost two hours._

“Seulgi?”

She hummed in response.

“Are you in a rush?”

“What?”

“You’ve been glancing at your watch a few times now since we sat down.”

“Oh..no it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it, Hyun.” Seulgi gave Irene a reassuring smile. “You must be tired. Wanna go up and rest?”

“Yea, that sounds nice.”

Seulgi raised her hand and asked the waiter for the bill.

***

Seulgi gasped while they right in front of their room and started feeling about her pockets for something.

“Hyun, I think I left my phone on the table just now. Why don’t you do ahead, I’ll go get it.”

“Okay. Here take one of the keys.”

“Thanks, Hyun. I’ll be back soon.”

Irene entered their room without any suspicions and Seulgi quickly went next door.

_Ok so far so good._

The moment Seulgi entered their base of operations, Joy announced with glee while looking at the monitor.

“And we’re live! Produced by the colleagues. Take 1!”

***

Irene gasped when she saw the room, it looked different from when she left it. She left the room with all of its light on but it was dimly lit with only the bedside lamps. The curtains were also drawn, making the room even darker. Irene was confused because she didn’t remember drawing the curtains either. She looked down and saw that there was a trail on the floor, made with rose petals, and it lead to the glass door. There was also a note by her foot that said _‘follow me’_ and pointed towards the the curtains. Taking a deep breath, Irene walked towards the drawn curtains.

She stopped when she saw another note taped on the curtains telling her to open them. She recognised the writing on the two notes, they were written by Seulgi. She removed the note and opened the curtains, surprised to find their photos stuck all over the glass.

The photos, Irene realised, were from taken within the last two years that they had been together. She moved to the left side of the door, assuming that the timeline would start from there. She was right. The first collage were from their first date. Irene remembered the red beret Seulgi had bought for her. She looked a little closer and saw that there were little messages written on some of the photos.

_‘We dressed alike that day. It must be fate. You looked so beautiful. I love you.’_

Irene glanced at at the next few photos and smiled softly. The photos were taken in Irene’s studio apartment kitchen from when Seulgi came over for dinner the first time. They had made a mess of the kitchen because Seulgi wanted to help but was a messy cook. Irene had spent more time cleaning up after her girlfriend than actually cooking that day. Seulgi had sneakily taken a selfie while pointing at Irene who was cleaning up in the background. There were also photos of their meal afterwards. While the food didn’t look particularly appetising, they agreed that it was delicious.

_‘I love cooking with you but I always make a mess. Thank you for cleaning up after me. I’ll work hard to improve! I love you.’_

Irene’s eyes were glistening by the time she saw the next collage. They were taken in front of Let’s Taco Bout Love from one of their many dates in the area. Irene looked at the one with writings on it. It seemed that either Sunny or Sooyoung had taken the photo because it was a candid shot of Seulgi and Irene laughing with each other, Irene’s hand poised in the air to give Seulgi a slap while she laughed.

_‘Sunny said honey was dripping from my eyes everytime I look at you. You make it difficult not to. I love you.’_

She looked at the rest of the collages on the glass and slowly, everything came flooding back to her. Irene blinked back tears and swallowed. Using the card in her hand, she covered the lower half of her face and moved on to the next collage. They were from their first trip to a tropical island for a short getaway. There was a photo of Irene that Seulgi had taken, she was posing with a glass of coconut shake, wearing huge sunglasses and a big straw hat. There was another photo of them posing with the crab they were about to have for dinner, and one of when Irene had fallen asleep on one of the beach chairs by the pool, shaded by a huge umbrella.

_‘I promise to always have your back, Hyun. I love you.’_

Irene glanced at the other collages, remembering every single moment from when the photos were taken.

_‘Furniture shopping is so much fun when you do it with the one you love. You have great taste in furniture, Hyun. As expected. I love you.’_

_‘We’re finally moved in together! I can’t believe it! Is this is how our the rest lives is going to be? I can’t wait. I love you.’_

_‘Ugh Hyunnie why are you sick? :( But don’t worry your Seulgi is here to take care of you! I love you.’_

_‘Aaand then it’s my turn to be sick. Thank you for taking care of me, Hyun. I love you.’_

The last photo was a stand alone instead of a collage. It was a recent photo of them, taken by Seulgi’s brother when they visited Seulgi’s family. They were sharing a drink and looking into each others’ eyes as they sipped from their straws.

_‘I love you, Bae Joohyun. So much.’_

“S-Seulgi-ah..” She called with a shaky voice and Seulgi was out the door and came bursting into their room. She went to her and Irene cried the moment Seulgi gathered her in her arms.

They stayed like that for a few moments while Seulgi cooed at her crying girlfriend to calm down. Only when her hiccups had stopped and her breathing returned to normal did Seulgi pulled away, cupped her face and wiped away whatever traces of tears left.

“You okay?”

Irene silently nodded, her eyes locked onto Seulgi’s.

“Joohyun-ah, I’m just going to say it straight because I’m rubbish at speeches.” Seulgi took a step back and reached for her pocket. Taking out the velvet box, Seulgi opened it and got down on one knee. She looked up at Irene and took a deep breath.

_Time to rock the world._

“Bae Joohyun, love of my life, will you marry me?”

“Yes!”

Irene reached for Seulgi’s turtleneck and pulled her up, peppering her face with kisses. Seulgi quickly snapped the box shut, fearing that the ring might fall off. She kissed her back, laughing in between the kisses. Pulling away slightly, Seulgi lifted Irene’s left hand.

“May I?”

“Yes.”

Seulgi retrieved the ring from its case and slipped it onto her ring finger and kissed her hand.

“I can’t wait to spend forever with you, Seulgi.”

“Me too.”

“CONGRATULATIONS!!!”

The team of dumb dumbs burst through the door and popped some confetti while Seungwan came out from her hiding spot in the closet with a camcorder in hand. Irene jumped and screamed at the sudden loud noise, clinging onto Seulgi before letting go when she saw who the new occupants of the room were.

“You were all in on this? Even you?” Irene pointed at Taeyeon and she guffawed.

“Yep! We’re all in on this. Even Yongsun came to help out.” Taeyeon pointed at one of the people in their small crowd who Seulgi recognised as Ms Kim from CCSJ, Irene’s colleague and good friend.

“Kim Yongsun you knew about this? For how long?”

“A few weeks. It was so hard keeping this secret from you! But it was so worth it. I’m so happy for you.” Yongsun came over and gave them a hug and soon, they were enveloped in a big group hug as their friends congratulated them again and again.

\---

“Wow, mom. Who knew you had it in you? I’m impressed!” Yerim nodded approvingly at her mother. “I thought for sure mom was the one who was going to pop the question.” Yerim glanced at Irene who was staring at Seulgi, not that the latter noticed.

“Thanks. I’m not always hopeless.”

“Mostly hopeless.”

“Gee thanks, Hyun.”

Irene smiled at her wife before turning to their daughter.

“Yerim-ah, it’s getting late.”

“I know..I know..I’ll leave you two alone. Good night, moms.” Yerim went over to her mothers and kissed them good night before disappearing up the stairs to her room.

“So? Hopeless?”

“Mostly. But it’s okay. I love you regardless.”

“That’s good to know.” Seulgi smiled as she leaned in for her own good night kiss.

\---

 

END.

 


	13. Bonus 1: Her Valentine's Birthday

 

With Seulgi’s birthday and Valentine’s Day only a few days apart, Irene really didn’t know how to go about it - celebrating twice would seem like a bit of an overkill but both days were special and deserved to be celebrated by itself. She mulled over it during lunch for a few days straight before her friend from Sales noticed.

“Okay, out with it. Why do you look so glum nowadays?”

“Yongsun-ah, I don’t know what do to. Seulgi’s birthday is coming up and it’s like four days before Valentine’s Day. What do I do? Do I just pick a date in the middle and celebrate them in one go?”

“What do you really want to do?”

“I want to do it on separate days but I feel like I’d be overdoing it? And I don’t think Seulgi has that much free time, she’s always toiling away on her laptop with her reports and paperwork.”

“I’m going to tell you something now that will seem a bit useless.” 

“Okay. Shoot.” Irene looked expectantly at her Yongsun.

“Follow your heart.”

“Yong..”

“I know. I know..”

“You’re a genius! I totally know what to do now. Thank you!”

Irene gave her friend a tight hug before returning back to work, leaving her quite bewildered.

“Okay? Happy to help!”

***

Seulgi’s work schedule was unpredictable but it would be more or less fixed when Jessica rolled out the work plan for the quarter. Irene called her cousin sister-in-law to ask about Seulgi’s schedule and Jessica emailed it to her with a ‘have fun’ and a wink emoji, knowing fully what Irene’s intentions were. Irene blushed and looked around, paranoid that her colleagues saw her expression.

_ Aah..so you’re benched for those 2 weeks? Well then, don’t mind if I do. _

Irene chuckled to herself before realising that it was a bit too loud and a few of her colleagues were looking at her. Clearing her throat, she put her serious face on and pretended to type something on her laptop. She peeked over the laptop’s lid to see if the coast was clear before sighing.

_ That was close. _

It wasn’t going to be her first time celebrating Valentine’s day, but it sure was the first time that she was celebrating it with somebody she actually loved. She cringed at her own cheesy thoughts and gave herself a shake to get rid of the goosebumps that formed. She moused over to the internet browser and double clicked. Once the search engine fully loaded, she typed in what she had in mind and smiled as she went through the results.

***

“Seulgi-ah!” Irene plopped down on the couch next to Seulgi and leaned fully onto the girl who was playing some rhythm game on her phone. Seulgi leaned to the side and rested her elbow on the armrest to support herself while keeping her phone in position, determined to clear the mission without missing a beat. 

“Yeah?” She answered absentmindedly.

“Your birthday is coming soon. So is Valentine’s Day..” 

Irene watched as Seulgi paused and exited her game. She turned to Irene while putting her phone away.

“Yes? It’s next month. Why?” 

“What are you doing that weekend?”

“You?”

Irene blushed almost instantly and whacked her with the nearest pillow she could reach while Seulgi laughed and blocked the attacks by shielding herself with her arms.

“Oh my god, did you learn that from Taeyeon?! I swear that woman is such a bad influence on you.” Irene glared at a still laughing Seulgi. 

“I don’t have plans yet. But I hang out with Sunny and Sooyoung on my birthday mostly. They usually insist that I stop by because Sooyoung and I have the same birthday. Sooyoung wants to celebrate together.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that.”

“Yep. But I don’t think they will mind it if I don’t hang out with them this year.” 

Irene looked as though she was in deep thought as she leaned forward to pick up her phone that was on the coffee table. Scrolling through the calendar, she paused at the intended week and hummed.

“What are you thinking about, Hyun?” Seulgi leaned closer to take a look at her phone and turned her head towards Irene. “Wait, is that my work schedule?”

“Yes, I’m thinking of which day I can whisk you away.”

Irene’s eyes softened when she saw the way Seulgi perked up at the mention of a possible trip.

“Where are we going exactly?”

Irene had planned a short weekend trip to the tropics. It was a place that Seulgi had mentioned offhandedly that one time that she wanted to visit, apparently there were some forms of watersports there that she badly wanted to try out - parasailing being one of them. Irene had shuddered at the thought of Seulgi potentially talking her into giving it a go. 

“Hyun, it’ll be fun! Look at them go!” Seulgi pointed excitedly at the video she was showing to her and Irene all but covered the phone with her palm. They were in the airport waiting to board their flight and Seulgi had thought that it would be a good idea to at least expose Irene to how the activity was going to be

“It looks so scary..”

“Why don’t I go first? Then you can see that there’s nothing to it!”

Irene couldn’t say no, not when Seulgi was looking at her with a bright smile that resembled the sun. 

_ My sunny bear. _

***

The both of them slept for the major part of their five-hour flight. Once they finished their complimentary in-flight meal, they were out like a light until the captain made the announcement  about the local time and weather and that they would soon be landing. Irene glanced at Seulgi, who seemed to be knocked out cold, and didn’t have the heart to wake the tired girl up. Seulgi had been at work till late the night before, rushing to finish a report to send to Taeyeon for review before she trudged her tired self back to Irene’s apartment.

She waited up for Seulgi, as she always did whenever Seulgi came over. Sha had offered to pick Seulgi up at her office but the latter declined since she didn’t know how late work would end. Seulgi slumped against Irene when she opened opened the door and started whining about the reports and the regrets of having slacked off during the afternoon to entertain Joy - the giant was bored because Seungwan was out of town for a fieldwork, leaving her alone for a week.

Irene woke her up eventually to put their seats upright in preparations for landing. Seulgi stayed awake enough to put everything back the way they were before falling asleep again, her head swinging awkwardly from side to side because she could no longer slouch comfortably. Irene took off her jacket and bundled it up. Placing it on her shoulder, she gently guided Seulgi’s head towards it and the said girl settled on her shoulder with a contented sigh.

“You’re the best, Hyun..” Seulgi mumbled before dozing off again.

“I know..” 

Irene looked out the window, admiring the city lights below as they began their descend.

\---

“..did you just make a gagging face at me?”

“I did no such thing.”

“Seulgi..”

“She did no such thing.”

“...children.”

Seulgi and Yerim cackled and sent finger guns to each other.

\---

In hindsight, Irene probably should have thought things through a little bit better when she decided on whisking Seulgi away to a tropical island. Being a person who was scared of both the deep sea and heights, she really should have reconsidered other destinations but there she was, clinging onto Seulgi for dear life as they stepped on the buoy where they would be parasailing that day.

The weather was great - neither too sunny nor too windy - it seemed perfect for an activity like such. Seulgi was bouncing with excitement as she pointed to the tourists who were currently up in the air.

“Look, Hyun! It’s really not that bad. Look look look! That person is taking off!” 

Irene considerably paled as she saw a fellow tourist take off - legs kicking the air as they ascended into the sky, high above the water. 

“What if something goes wrong and we fall?”

“We have life jackets. We’d be floating till the come rescue us.”

“So you’re saying we could fall?”

“We’re not going to fall into the water, Hyun.”

Irene watched helplessly as her only form of support on the rocky buoy walked further and further away from her when it was Seulgi’s turn to go. Finding a vacant spot on the benched, she sat herself down and watched as Seulgi got suited up for her turn. She thought her heart was going to stop beating the moment Seulgi’s feet left the buoy, a worried frown formed when she saw Seulgi’s limbs flailing in the air. But unbeknownst to her, the said girl was having the time of her life whilst in the air.

And when it was finally her turn, Irene might have, perhaps just a little, enjoyed it as well.

Irene silently thanked Seulgi when she asked if they could spend the remainder of the day just lazing around either on the beach or by the hotel pool. She probably thought that Irene had had enough of excitement for one day, what with parasailing, snorkeling and island hopping. Seulgi had enjoyed herself thoroughly from what Irene could deduce, and while the activities weren’t exactly in her comfort zone, she gave them a go anyway and she could see how much Seulgi appreciated her efforts, especially after the amount of coaxing the younger girl had to do.

They spent the rest of late afternoon lazing by the pool and Irene fell asleep, lulled by the warm sea breeze. She slept until she felt somebody carrying her somewhere and jolted awake. Seulgi was moving her indoors because it had started to drizzle. 

“You could’ve just woken me up, ya know?” Irene commented when Seulgi finally put her down.

“I thought you’d like it be better this way.”

Irene rolled her eyes and gave Seulgi a shove, smiling in spite of herself.

“Idiot..”

***

Thankfully it only drizzled and stopped after a few minutes. Irene had gone to the hotel’s in-house restaurant to ask if their dinner plans could still proceed as planned and the staff assured her that it could - there weren’t any rain clouds in sight, they probably won’t be expecting any rain for the rest of the day. Irene beamed and dragged Seulgi back to their room to get ready to dinner.

Dinner was a relatively quiet affair - they were both tired from being out the whole day - the only sounds one could hear were the occasional clanking of cutlery against china and the sound of waves crashing onto the shore. They were seated at a table right on the beach and were either too busy admiring the setting sun or each other. Irene had taken one look at the sky and gave her mother a video call just to show her the view.

“It’s so pretty here, mom! Look at this stuff.” Irene shifted the camera to show the ocean view and the pinkish sky. “Isn’t it neat?”

_ “It sure is, Hyun. What are you two having for dinner?” _

“We’re having crabs!” Seulgi yelled from across the table and Irene passed the phone over to her. “Hi, Mrs Bae! How have you been?”

_ “Ah..Seulgi. I’ve been well, thank you for asking. How are you enjoying your birthday?” _

“It’s been great! Joohyun’s great, the food’s great, watersports was great!”

_ “That’s good to hear. Alright I don’t want to impose on your birthday dinner any longer. Let’s talk another time, Seulgi-ah. Can you pass the phone back to Joohyun?” _

“Okay. We’ll call again soon! Here you go, Hyun.”

Irene chatted with her mother a little longer before hanging up and returned her attention to Seulgi who was very diligently prying the shells off of the crabs to reach the tender meat inside. Irene snorted because Seulgi’s concentration face was too funny and quickly took some photos before the girl noticed. Irene inspected the results with a satisfied smirk.

_ I’m sure that will come in handy for future blackmailing use. _

“Hyun, what are you looking at?”

“Nothing..” Irene said in a singsong manner before putting her phone away, as if nothing had happened.

\---

“Did you ever get to use that photo?”

“That and others. Plenty of times.”

“Your mom can be a real meanie sometimes, Yerim.”

\---

“I can’t believe four days just passed like that” Seulgi whined.“Ugh I have reports to correct when I get back.”

They were taking a stroll on the beach, admiring the view they had come to get used to over the past couple of days.

“I want to stay here forever..”

“Me too. Thanks for the birthday and Valentines trip, Hyun. You’re God sent.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” Irene beckoned Seulgi towards her and she complied, leaning down for a kiss.

\---

“You have it just as bad as mom.” Yerim rolled her eyes. “Why are my parents like this?” 

“....”

“Not so fun when you’re the one on the receiving end, is it Hyun?”

Irene heard Seulgi snickering and glared at her. Seulgi, who was reviewing some reports at the dining table, immediately ducked under the laptop’s lid, using it as a cover to shield her from her wife’s glare. Irene turned her attention back to Yerim and huffed.

“Well, daughter dearest, why don’t you ask Rong out and maybe understand why are we like this.”

“That was fun. I’m going to meet Rong now.” Yerim stood up to gather her things and sauntered out of the living room as if Irene hadn’t said anything. Stopping at the foot of the stairs, she turned towards her parents with a cheeky grin. “Also, mother dear, jokes on you because I already did. Today is my second date.” She sent a wink Irene’s way.

“What?! Yah! Kang Yerim! When did you-” A flustered Irene yelled but the only replies she got were Yerim’s cackles and the sound of the front door closing.

Irene crossed her arms and grumbled. “That girl..” 

Seulgi was amused to see her wife so worked up. It was understandable, she was their only child after all and Irene was notoriously protective of her. Seulgi shrugged when Irene looked at her.

“Don’t look at me. She gets it from you.”

“Hmm..good to know that all those hours of labour weren’t for nothing.” Irene answered dryly and got up from her seat, making her way towards Seulgi. She pulled up a chair beside her and sat down. Irene leaned on her wife and rested her cheek on Seulgi’s shoulder.

“When did she get so big, Seulgi-ah?.”

“Kinda scary, huh? How fast they grow up.”

Seulgi kissed the top of Irene’s head and went back to work, her wife watching as she typed the last few review points on her team’s report.

 

\---

 

END.


	14. Bonus 2: The Months Before Yerim

 

“Hey, mom?” Yerim asked while closing the book she was reading. 

“Yea?” Seulgi looked up from the paperwork she was working on and glanced at the book her daughter was putting away. “Need help with homework?”

“No. I was just wondering..how was it like in the months B.Y.?”

“B.Y.?”

“Before Yerim.” Yerim pointed at herself smugly.

“Aah..are you asking how was is like when your mom was carrying you?”

“Yes. Since..ya know..she’s not home for the next couple of days, I thought you’d be able to talk about it more freely..should you have any complains..” the teenager chuckled cheekily and was already making herself comfortable on the couch, ready to listen to whatever her mom had to say. She liked it when her mothers told her stories from the past, it helped her learn new things about her doting parents and not to mention the way they told the tales was pretty entertaining.

“You little rascal..” 

Yerim beamed as she watched her mother put away her work. It was storytime and probably a good one, too.

\---

It all began about a year into their marriage when Seulgi started to have thoughts about expanding their family. The topic had been brought up vaguely once or twice before and Seulgi was pretty sure that Irene wanted children as much as she did. She just needed confirmation at this point.  

They were lazing on the couch after dinner one Friday night, Irene was alternating between absentmindedly flipping through the channels and peeling an apple while Seulgi was sprawled on her end of the couch watching whatever channel her wife decided on.

There really was no subtle way to ease into a topic like such so Seulgi decided to just jump into it.

“Hyun?”

Irene hummed lazily as she passed the bowl of freshly cut apples to her, taking a bite of a piece herself.

“What do you think about kids?”

“Kids?”

“Yeah, kids. I think it’d be nice, ya know? Having a little Joohyun running around..” Seulgi trailed off when she saw Irene set the bowl down a little slower than usual and then very slowly, almost to the point of being dramatic, turned to face Seulgi. There was a sigh and Seulgi honestly thought that she might pass out from the suspense.

“Seulgi-ah..am I not enough?”

A mild panic started to build. What kind of question was that? Was Irene feeling insecure or anything of that sort? But before Seulgi could go further into her panic, Irene was already laughing, hand slapping Seulgi’s leg as her pitch went higher.

“You should’ve seen your face!!”

“Hyun!!” Whatever Seulgi wanted to say next died in her throat when Irene got up and sat back down on her lap.

“Seulgi..” 

“Y-yes?”

“I would love to start a family with you.”

***

Seulgi would never forget that day when Irene had called her while she was at work, something she almost never did unless it was urgent - like that time she needed Seulgi to run some errands because her in-laws were visiting. Seulgi was in the middle of a meeting with Jessica and Ms Song when it happened. They were discussing the final draft report for one of their clients when Taeyeon knocked on their boss’ office door while holding up Seulgi’s phone, saying that it had been ringing non-stop for the last ten minutes.

Seulgi quickly excused herself and went to call Irene back.

_ “Seulgi!! Where have you been? I’ve been calling yo-” _

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, Joohyun-ah. Taeyeon just told me. I was in a meeting with Jessica and Ms Song.”

_ “Oh..”  _

Seulgi sighed in relief but somehow she knew her wife was up to something. “Hyun, is everything alright?”

_ “Seulgi-ah, I was at the clinic earlier with Yongsun.”  _

“What? Why? Are you okay? Did somethi-”

_ “Seulgi, calm down. Everything is fine. I have something to tell you.” _

“Okay shoot.” 

Whatever it was, the suspense was killing her. She heard Irene take a deep breath, as if preparing herself for some kind of big announcement.

_ “I’m pregnant, Seulgi!” _

“Huh? What?”

_ “Yes, Seulgi, you heard that right. We’re gonna be moms!” _

“Yes?”

_ “Yes, Seulgi.” _

She could very well see Irene’s smile from across the city as she confirmed it again that she was, indeed, pregnant their first child.

“Oh my god yes? YES YES YES YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!”

Irene laughed, or she might have imagined it, Seulgi wasn’t sure. Her own cheers drowned out every other sound in the vicinity and everybody was giving her looks. Even Jessica and Ms Song had stepped out of their meeting room to see what the commotion was about.

“Seulgi, is everything alright?” Jessica asked once Seulgi tucked her phone into her pocket.

“JOOHYUN IS PREGNANT! WE’RE GONNA BE MOMS!!”

Everybody crowded Seulgi to congratulate her and enveloped her a big group hug. Taeyeon, who was closest to her, grabbed her into a headlock and gave her a noogie. 

“Congrats, little one! I can’t believe you two are going to be parents soon.”

“Me neither. Please quit it that hurts!” Seulgi complained and Taeyeon released her.

“Good luck, little one. And have fun.” 

As soon as the clock struck six, Seulgi bolted through the door after hastily saying her goodbyes. They understood, she had been out of focused since the phone call earlier that day and was practically begging to go home early but there was work to be done. Seulgi had tried her best to focus but nothing seemed to work. She spent the majority part of the day texting Irene, there was so much to do, so much to discuss and so much to prepare for their first child. She really couldn’t wait. All she wanted to do was to go home to her wife.

Seulgi tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as she sat in a standstill. There seemed to have been an accident a little up ahead and the vehicles involved had taken up and entire lane, causing a bottleneck effect in the otherwise smooth flow of traffic.

_ The one day when I really need to get home quickly. _

She rested her head on the steering wheel in defeat, only to jump when she accidentally pressed the honk instead. Sighing, she gave herself a shake to calm herself down, Irene had texted earlier telling her not to rush, worried that her excitement might get the better of her while she was driving. After what seemed like forever, when really it had only been 15 minutes, Seulgi finally got passed the accident point and it was a smooth journey home.

Seulgi swore she almost pulled out the entire handbrake when she finally parked in their allotted spot in the basement parking of their apartment. She practically sprinted to the elevator and tapped on the up button repeatedly until it dinged and the doors opened. She spent another few more seconds anxiously waiting as the contraption brought her up to her floor and squeezed through the doors before they could fully open.

Irene was all over her the moment she pushed the front door opened. Seulgi picked Irene up and spun them around. Laughs and giggles filled their home as they celebrated the news of their newest member of the family.

\---

“The excitement was real.”

“It really was. It’s apparently common for all first time parents to be that way.”

“Who picked my name by the way?” Yerim asked and quickly continued when Seulgi cautiously asked why. “I’m just curious. I love my name.”

“Joohyun picked it, along with your surname.”

“Yea about that. I thought you said you would gladly take mom’s family name? How did she end up taking yours?”

“Because, my dear.” Seulgi paused and smiled smugly, looking very proud of herself. “Contrary to popular belief, your mom is just as whipped for me as I am for her.”

“Fair point.”

\---

Seulgi spoiled Irene shamelessly and while Irene had protested, Seulgi didn’t really care. She was going to make sure that Irene was being pampered the way she deserved to be, even when she was in one of her mood swings and was throwing a tantrum at Seulgi.

She handled them well, at least that was what Taeyeon told her whenever she heard stories from Irene about what had happened behind the closed doors of the Kang household. Seulgi had been nothing but patient with her wife whenever Irene got into one of her moods and would slowly figure out a way to placate her. It was a lot of work, not going to lie, since dealing with a temperamental Irene was something very new to her - Irene was mostly a calm person, unless she was being competitive. Then it would be a completely different story altogether, something Seulgi learnt early on in their relationship.

Mood swings aside, Irene was otherwise very easy to take care of. Her food cravings were not as bad as Taeyeon had warned. Apparently Jessica had taken to sending her out food hunting late at night quite a few times and Taeyeon had told Seulgi to prepare in case Irene was also the same. Irene dismissed the thought entirely when she heard it from Seulgi, citing that even she knew those foods were not from their half of the world and no 24-hour convenience store would have them. Seulgi waved it off.

“I would go to the ends of the earth just to find them for you, Hyun.” Seulgi finished with a wink and Irene rolled her eyes.

“Idiot..”

***

Seulgi had decided early on that she was going to splurge on their first child, always excitedly talking to Irene about what they still needed to get. Irene was the level headed one who had to control her overly excited wife whenever they entered a store. Seulgi would otherwise end up buying everything the salesperson recommended, not stopping to think of the practicality of the purchase. 

“Yes, thank you but we already have that. Seulgi, let’s go. It’s time for dinner.” Irene coolly thanked the salesperson, who bowed and left them alone, and tugged on her wife’s arm, signalling that it was time to go but Seulgi was still very much engrossed in checking out the strollers that were on display. “Seulgi?”

“Hyun, what do you think about that one?”

“Seulgi, we just got one last week!”

“But this looks so nice! It even has a cup holder! Look!”

“Honey..”

That stopped Seulgi dead in her tracks. It was that tone again and one did not simply mess with Irene when she was using that tone of voice. It would be a death wish. Seulgi gulped and tittered. “Y-yes?”

“Dinner. Let’s go.”

“Okay..” Seulgi meekly replied and allowed herself to be dragged out of the store.

Seulgi’s stomach growled as soon as they exited the store and Irene smiled smugly at her because she apparently knew her wife that well. Seulgi scoffed and pulled out her phone to lookup the mall’s directory, checking for the list of restaurants available. She wasn’t even half way done when she felt Irene tug on her arm again to get her attention. 

Irene was pointing at one of the restaurants not too far away from them. Seulgi squinted to read the signboard and her eyes widened. Slowly, she brought up her hand to feel Irene’s forehead for her temperature. “You don’t seem to have a fever..”

“Yah!” Irene very promptly smacked Seulgi’s shoulder.

“Hyun, are you alright?” Seulgi teased.

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much. Your daughter wants chicken so there you go.”

“Alright alright..” Seulgi laughed and bent down towards Irene’s baby bump. “I can’t believe you got your mom to want to eat chicken, Yerim-ah! We’re going to get along just fine.” Seulgi looked up and beamed at Irene who was shaking her head.

“Children..”

Seulgi looked warily at her wife when they stood in front of the shop, not sure if Irene was going to go through with it. She was not particularly fond of the dish, after having had a bad experience eating it when she was younger. But Irene was determined to have chicken for dinner so there really wasn’t anything Seulgi could do about it besides to be supportive.

Irene had enjoyed the meal thoroughly, but declared that it would be the last time she ever touched the meat. Cravings or not, once was enough, no matter how much she loved their child.

***

“Wow, mom did that?”

“Yup. She did that.”

“Who did what?”

Yerim and Seulgi turned their heads towards the front door when they heard the question and was greeted by the sight of Irene taking off and putting away her shoes.

“Mom! You’re back early!” Yerim went over and helped her mother with her luggage.

“Thanks. How were you two while I was away?” Irene smiled when Seulgi came over and pecked her cheek. “I see the house is still standing.”

“You’re back early..” Seulgi changed the topic immediately, not wanting it to get to the topic of her accidentally almost burning the kitchen down that one time. Irene seemed to know her intentions and smirked knowingly at Seulgi, who feigned innocence and smiled. Yerim looked at her parents and rolled her eyes.

“Insufferable..” she mumbled and her eyes darted to her parents, fearing that they might have heard but thankfully, they seemed to be lost in each others eyes and Yerim sighed in relief. 

Seulgi put away most of Irene’s things while her wife lazed on the couch with their daughter, tired from her travels. She had been out with Yongsun attending an annual meeting held at their company’s head office across the country. Seulgi joined them a little while later and Irene all but latched herself onto Seulgi the moment she sat down.

“Why are you so comfortable?”

“That’s because you were on a bus for five hours.”

“True..what were you two talking about when I got in? Something about somebody doing something?”

“Mom was telling me about that one time you had chicken.”

Irene’s face scrunched in disdain recalling the only time she had ever eaten chicken in her adult life and sighed. “The things I did for you, daughter dear.”

“I appreciate it, I really do.” Yerim shifted her attention to Seulgi, wanting to know the rest of the story. “So what did you two do afterwards? Shop some more?”

“Nope, we went home for dessert.”

“Seulgi!” Irene’s eyes widened, remembering what had happened afterwards vividly.

“Dessert? Mom made dessert?”

“Yea. It was a spread. Very satisfying.”

“SEULGI!!”

 

\---

 

END.


	15. Bonus 3: Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

 

“Great, it’s raining. Just as Luna said it would.”

Joy stood at the entrance of their campus’ library, watching as the rain poured one evening after she decided to call it a day and go back to the dorm. In hindsight, she probably should have listened to her roommate’s warning and packed an umbrella with her that day - it had been raining the entire week during the evenings. If she had, perhaps she wouldn’t be stranded on campus at that moment.

Fishing out her phone from her bag, she quickly texted her roommate of her predicament and that she would be late for dinner seeing how the rain was not going to let up anytime soon. She briefly considered running across the short distance to the shaded walkway opposite the library but decided against it when she thought of the textbooks she just borrowed. She was about to head back into the library when a voice stopped her.

“Do you want to share my umbrella?”

Joy stared at the girl beside her, slightly surprised at the offer - a few had walked passed her in the last few minutes with their respective umbrellas and none of them had bothered about her, each rushing to go home or to whatever classes they had. She was about to accept the offer but saw that the umbrella would probably not fit the both of them.

“Oh, no it’s okay. You go ahead. Thank you.” Joy gave her a little bow but the girl didn’t budge.

“The rain is not going to stop anytime soon, ya know?” She looked at the darkening sky and then at her umbrella. “I know what you’re thinking and it’s okay. It’s just water. What’s more important is keeping those books dry.” She pointed at the textbooks Joy held.

Joy nodded gratefully, telling the girl that she only needed to cross to the walkway and off they went. She wrapped an arm around the shorter girl so that they could huddle together as close as possible to shelter themselves from the rain under the umbrella. 

“Thank you! You’re God sent. The books are still dry!” Joy cheered as she inspected the books once they reached their destination, thrilled that she wouldn’t have to face any possible nagging from the librarian again and pay any potential fines for ruining them. “I don’t think I can survive another nagging from Mrs. Han.”

“Mrs. Han?”

“She’s some kind of head of the librarians and she nagged me a few times before because I got coffee stains on some of the books a few semesters back.” Joy sighed. “Either way, I gotta go. Thanks again!”

“No problem.”

“See you around, cutie!” 

Joy winked and dashed off, not missing the way the girl’s cheeks coloured.

***

Classes were a bore as usual, Joy sometimes wondered what possessed her to take such a boring course in the first place and then remembered that she would have probably suffered even more had she pursued Science instead. The semester barely started and they already hated most of their classes. She looked over at her friends who, like her, were not paying any attention as their lecturer went on about the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - they had already read up on the topic ahead of their class during their study session. Krystal was staring blankly at the screen while Amber was slouching in her seat hugging her backpack as though it was a pillow. 

Joy looked around for the missing member of their little crew. Luna was nowhere to be seen even though she had texted earlier that she would show up to class that day. Her roommate’s timetable was a bit different than theirs and had a tutorial class to attend prior to the lecture they were currently sitting in. Joy gave up looking after a while, worried that the lecturer might call on her for acting weird and went back to daydreaming until class was over.

The three of them were packing up to go when two shadows loomed over them. Krystal looked up and saw Luna beaming at them.

“Yah, where were you? We thought you bailed on us.”

“I was sitting all the way up there near the doors. Oh, I made a new friend today!”

“Congraaaa~tulations.” Amber said while yawning.

“Guys, this is Seungwan. She just transferred here.”

Amber and Krystal greeted Seungwan and nudged Joy, who was still packing up. 

“Huh? Oh! Hey, cutie. We meet again.”

Three sets of eyes looked curiously at her and the said cutie blushed.

“What?”

“How do you two know each other?”

“I helped her once last week when it was raining.”

Luna snapped her fingers when she managed to connect the dots.

“You’re too nice to this spawn of Satan, Seungwan. You should have just let her ruin those books and let Mrs Han nag her ears off. I’d pay good money to see that.”

\---

“Wow, right from the get go! She didn’t waste any time at all.”

“No, she actually really did not waste any time at all.”

“What?”

“Apparently she asked her out within a couple of weeks.”

“WHAT?”

\---

Joy was fascinated by the new addition to their group. Actually, fascinated would be an understatement. Amber, Krystal and Luna watched in amusement as Joy stuck to Seungwan like glue day in and day out. Joy had denied all accusations that she was going to whisk Seungwan away for herself and leave the other three to fend for themselves until their degree ended.

“Say it. If we weren’t cousins you wouldn’t even be sitting here with us, would you?” Luna asked, pointing accusingly at Joy.

“Come on, you guys really think that I would just abandon all of you? After all we’ve been through last year?” Joy gasped dramatically, feigning offence while Krystal and Amber were just enjoying the show.

“What happened last year?” Seungwan asked innocently in the middle of the chaos during one of their group study sessions.

Amber took it upon herself to retell the tales from the year before when they were in their pre-university programme. Being fresh out of high school and all, the three of them chilled excessively and had failed most of their midterms and assignments during the first semester before actually sitting down to work on their grades. The scores they got for their finals were just enough to pass since their coursework marks were so bad. Needless to say, that first semester scare was enough to keep their momentum going until they finished their pre-u programme and moved onto their degree course. 

“That’s my girl!” Seungwan gave Joy an impressed nod and gave Joy a peck on her cheek. Joy looped an arm over Seungwan’s shoulders and smiled smugly at their friends who were either making gagging noises or rolling their eyes.

“These two are insufferable.” 

***

Semester break, a time where student rejoice at their temporary freedom and return home to hibernate for weeks before having to return to campus to face yet another 14 weeks of classes. Joy had planned on doing just that before Amber and Krystal burst into their dorm room one night a few weeks before their finals with Seungwan in tow.

They were talking excitedly about going on a trip again since they were all finally legal and are mature enough to handle themselves in whatever situation they might get themselves into. Luna had scoffed at the statement and reminded Amber about that time she decided to challenge her cousins to a spicy instant ramen competition during the semester break before. Amber had lost terribly and spent the day emptying her parents’ refrigerator of whatever leftover milk they had.

Amber waved it off, citing that she had grown since then.

“That was only two months ago!”

“So? Are we going on a trip or not? Gotta start planning now or it’ll never happen.” 

“I don’t see why not..Seungwan?” 

“I’m in!”

Joy looked at her roommate and shrugged. 

“Guess we’re going on a trip. Where do you have in mind?”

Krystal and Amber grinned and fished out a USB flashdrive to begin a proposal presentation for their trip. They had already done a detailed study on potential vacation spots they could visit including attractions, transportation, accomodation and the all important budget. Luna, Seungwan and Joy nodded as they listened, very much impressed by what was presented to them given that it probably only took Krystal and Amber a couple of days to put together.

That was how they ended up visiting a nearby port town, about a three-hour bus ride away from their university because they agreed that the main objective of their trip was to eat as much seafood as possible - fish, crabs, prawns, oysters - you named it, they ate it. Joy complained about having indigestion during their second day and Seungwan babied her for the remainder of the trip - asking if she was okay, making sure that she wasn’t eating too fast and on time.

The other three were snickering at her supposed indigestion because it seemed like she was putting on a show because Seungwan was around. Joy sent a glare their way followed by a smirk and it confirmed their suspicions.

“Sneaky little shit.”

“Well played, Park Sooyoung. Well played.” 

Joy sheepishly came clean to Seungwan a few days afterwards that it was all an act.

“Oh I know.” Seungwan allowed herself a smirk but it eventually turned into a soft smile when she saw Joy’s eye widened. “I went along with it because I like taking care of you and you looked like you were enjoying it.”

“You know me too well.” Joy threw herself at Seungwan, peppering her face with kisses.

***

Classes were still a bore when they returned for their final year. Joy thought that their final year would at least be a bit more exciting than the two before but things didn’t change much. At least they had their final year project to look forward to. Thinking of topics to research about was a pain but once they had that down, everything took off.

Looking for journals to support their topic wasn’t a problem, they had had tonnes of practice courtesy of assignments of semesters passed. So was writing up a proposal for their topic and conducting their pilot test. It was all very new and exciting to them as they look forward to having their thesis professionally bound with their names proudly printed on the cover. If they did well enough, they would be able to present their research at a national seminar and it would also be kept in the library for future students to refer to.

Everything was going smoothly aside from some lecturers were out to get them for absolutely no reason. Amber got into trouble with one of them and was barred from entering class because she was late after getting back from the doctor’s during flu season. Krystal and Joy had argued with the unreasonable lecturer and gotten themselves kicked out of class as well. Luna and Seungwan wanted to help but Krystal quickly texted them to stay put.

_ ‘It’s not worth it, guys. We’ll be fine. Meet you guys at the library after class.’ _

Joy pouted as she took one last look at Seungwan from outside the lecture hall before trudging off with Amber and Krystal. 

“Stop sulking, there’s only an hour and a half left.” Krystal patted Joy’s back a little too hard and the latter grimaced. She then turned to check on Amber. “Hey, Am..”

“Yeah?” Amber replied while sniffling.

“You sure you don’t want to go back and rest?”

“I’ll just nap in the library while you guys chill.”

While Krystal was fussing over Amber, the two of them completely missed the way Joy was giggling because Seungwan sent her a text.

_ ‘Miss you already!<3’ _

\---

“They’re saps, too!!”

“They actually are…”

\---

As their degree course drew closer to the end, Joy got increasingly anxious. Graduation was usually the turning point when it came to relationships, at least that was what she had heard from their seniors, because it was normal for them to part ways to either return to their respective hometowns or go to whatever city that they wanted to start their life at and not many relationships could endure the distance.

Joy sighed again as she was sprawled on the bed thinking of their impending graduation. While things were going steady between the two of them, she really couldn’t help but worry about the uncertainties. Luna just about had had enough of her roommate’s sighing and threw a scrunched up ball of paper at her, successfully hitting its target that was Joy’s forehead.

“What?”

“Don’t ‘what?’ me. You are obviously worried and you need to go talk to her about..whatever it is that you two are going to do after graduation.” 

Joy sat up and sighed again but immediately brought her arms up to shield herself from an incoming projectile when she heard Luna scrunching up another piece of paper.

“Go before I chuck something that will actually hurt at you.”

“Alright, alright. Geez..” Joy brought her hands up to surrender and left for Seungwan’s dorm room two floors up.

\---

“What happened? I mean..obviously nothing terrible because they’re still together. Right?”

“Well, yeah. She just likes to be dramatic. In another life she would’ve been quite the actress, ya know?”

\---

“Alright. Everybody, meet the new kids. New kids, meet everybody. Now introduce yourselves.” 

Joy and Seungwan looked at each other and blinked before turning back to the lady who was smiling expectantly at them, urging them to introduce themselves to the small audience in front of them like a teacher who wanted her new transfer students to fit in with her little class.

Seungwan went first and their audience clapped to welcome her. Joy waited for them to stop before introducing herself. 

“Alright. Now you guys introduce yourselves. We’ll go clockwise from you.”

A tall, lanky girl raised her arm, a cheeky grin already forming. “I’m Yoona, one of the team leaders here. We’re going to have so much fun!”

While ‘fun’ would not be the right word to describe the job they found, courtesy of Krystal’s connections, Joy somehow believed Yoona that the job was going to be fun. The office team seemed laid back and their seniors gave her the impression that they were all dumb dumbs.

“This place looks not bad. I kinda like it here so far.” Joy whispered to Seungwan once they had settled down to their assigned desks. “We’re going to have to thank Krystal for her recommendation once she gets back from her fancy modelling job in Europe. I still can’t believe she was scouted and during our convocation of all places.”

“Me neither. Oh hey that must be her sister. I can see the resemblance between the two of them.” Seungwan nudged her head in the direction of a particularly calm and quiet person who was busy typing away at her desk. “Her desk is way bigger, do you think that’s how things work here? The higher the post, the bigger the desk?”

“It’s possible. I mean..look our boss’ table. It’s huge!”

“Yes, Joy. We do, in fact, distinguish our posts here by the size of our desks. That’s why Jessica’s desk is the biggest second only to Ms Song’s.” Yoona came up behind them and Joy jumped. “I have a bunch of old case files for you two to study while Jessica figure out which team to put you guys into. Have fun!”

Yoona dropped a pile of case files on their desk and sauntered off. The two new recruits blinked blankly at the huge pile and smiled at each other.

“Well, we should probably get started.” Joy reached out and handed one of the files to Seungwan.

“We probably should.”

\---

“And a few months later they meet your mom.”

“Oh..so your moms met in college. That totally explains why they aren’t as clingy as my parents, they’ve known each other for so long. I swear to God, Rong-ah, it’s like they cannot live without seeing each other for a day I’m about to go crazy. So. much. public display of affection.” Yerim gasped in horror remembering how gross her parents usually were.

“Mine are almost the same. They just hide it better when they’re out in public.”

“Consider yourself lucky. Now..how do you solve this Math problem again?”

\---

  
  


END.


	16. Chapter 11.5

“Hey mom, got any more funny stories from work?” Seulgi was watching some news clip on her phone when Yerim plopped herself down beside her on the couch. 

“Shouldn’t you be studying? Finals start next week, yes?” Seulgi set her phone down and looked at her daughter who was clearly trying to procrastinate. “Your mother is going to nag you again if she sees you goofing off when she gets home later.”

Yerim smiled sheepishly at Seulgi and she understood what her cheeky daughter was trying to say. Her wife was out grocery shopping with her cousin and they usually took their own sweet time going through the aisles and picking out whatever they needed to get. It was a fortnightly event for the two cousins and why Jessica would tag along each time was beyond Seulgi. 

She loved Irene to bits but tagging along with them every single time was really tiring. Seulgi had cautiously approached Irene about sitting out on their grocery runs, fearing that her wife would be offended by her lack of enthusiasm for it. But to her surprise Irene had laughed when she finally asked, saying that she was wondering when would Seulgi try to escape getting groceries with her and Taeyeon because she knew that they did take their time and it could go on for hours.

Seulgi sighed at the memory and glanced at the clock. They still had time, Irene had only been gone for about twenty minutes, she shouldn’t be back for at least another hour or so and Yerim had been revising consistently throughout the semester, a little procrastination wouldn’t hurt her grades.

“Well..” Seulgi began and Yerim’s eyes lit up as she made herself comfortable on the couch.

“What’s this one about?”

“It’s about that time your mother screamed-what? NO NOT LIKE THAT! Head out of the gutter right now, young lady!”

\---

“Alright team. We are gathered here today after a long time to witness this special occasio-”

“Yoona, we don’t have time for this..”

“Right right. Sorry, Jessica.” Yoona flashed a cheeky grin at their manager before continuing, “So..Jessica over there has assigned us to look after this client of ours. They were previously under Yuri’s team but Ms Song had apparently reassigned it to our team.”

“Quit complaining, kid. Think of it as a promotion.”

“Anyway..” Yoona rolled her eyes comically and dismissed Jessica’s interruption. “We will be heading over in about two weeks so these are all you need to know about our client.”

Yoona spent the next hour explaining to Seulgi and the rest of the team what was going to happen in the coming weeks. According to legend, that particular client of theirs once forced Ms Song to mobilise almost the entire workforce their company had to complete a fieldwork a few years ago before Team Super Rookie joined. The job was fairly simple but there were a lot of documents to go through and that was what slowed things down for them.

It sounded like a tough job but after that behemoth of a fieldwork, Seulgi felt that they can take on anything Ms Song threw at them.

The first thing Seulgi did after the briefing ended was to text Irene about it because that client was only two train stops away from where CCSJ was. They could grab lunch or maybe dinner sometimes while she was stationed there. Irene was more than happy to hear the news. She liked the team of dumb dumbs quite a bit, there was never a dull moment whenever they were around.

Preparations were underway and soon the team found themselves standing in front of the client’s office building with the younger members looking a bit confused.

“Yoona, I thought you said the client was selling pre-owned cars. Why does this place look like a bank? Where are all the cars?” Seungwan asked and Yoona could see two other heads turn towards her and Seohyun.

“Well, they loan money to people specifically to buy cars from them. Kind of like a car dealer with their own private bank. The showroom is at another location.”

“Wow I need a moment to digest that. It’s too early in the morning for this.” Joy closed her eyes and massaged her temple. Seohyun shook her head and led them in to show them around while Yoona went to greet their client.

Seulgi found out soon enough why Ms Song had to send out every available staff to help out with that one fieldwork from years ago when she saw the amount of documents that were already prepared for them in the conference room they were to occupy. The client was a financial institute of sorts, kind of like a bank, there were all sorts of forms and documents the loan applicants had to prepare and the team was given the honour to vouch through every single one of their selected applicants to make sure that everything is in place. A simple task, but also a very tedious one.

The first half of the day passed quickly with them conducting interviews with the client’s staff to get a better understanding of the forms used and the entire approval process. Seulgi barely had time to sneak a few texts to Irene as they scrambled to keep up with what the adults were talking about. It was all fairly new to them, it was their first time there after all.

The rest of the day was spent familiarising themselves with the documents and loan application process - it was long and the documents involved were almost uncountable - Yoona needed to make sure that everybody knew what they were doing. It wasn’t until everybody could describe the workflow properly that Yoona was satisfied and they officially started their paperwork.

Everything went by smoothly before Seohyun nudged Yoona to notify her about the time. Seulgi looked up from her laptop when she heard their team leader clear her throat and told them it was time to pack up to go. She was confused - it was still early, barely 6pm, they usually stayed later than that. Besides, they had so many things left to go through. Why on earth would they leave so early and risk not being able to finish towards the end of the fieldwork?

“No, we gotta go. Like right now.” Seohyun said firmly and the three of them packed up their things as quick as they could. It was rare that Seohyun spoke so seriously and they daren’t disobey.

Before they could finish, somebody knocked on the door and let themselves in. It was the security guard and eyes widened when they saw the gun he was carrying. 

“Ladies, we’re locking up in ten minutes.”

“We’re almost done packing. Thank you.” Yoona thanked him and he left them alone.

The moment he shut the door, they exhaled in relief. It was the first time they ever saw a real gun that close and it was a big gun, kind of like those shotguns in the video games Seulgi played.

“Th-that thing is real, right?” Joy clarified with their seniors.

“Very. This is kind of like a bank, there’s lots of cash in this building and they need it in case anybody tries to rob this place. Plus, we’re in the shady part of the city. They really need it.”

A collective “whoa” could be heard as the trio processed the new information that was given. Seohyun looked at her watch again and hurried them out the door. There was an unspoken agreement between them and the client that they would not stay late because of safety reasons. Crime rate at that part of the city was relatively high and they would not be held accountable should anything happened to the team of consultants.

They stepped out of the office with smiles plastered across their faces. It was rare for them to end the day while the sun was still out. They were happy to be able to enjoy the sun even for a little while as they walked to Yoona’s car.

Irene was pleasantly surprised when Seulgi returned home earlier than usual that day. Seulgi sent her a text when she left the office saying that she would be home soon but Irene didn’t buy it - Seulgi’s definition of ‘soon’ varied according to the situation, especially if it involved work.

“Hyunnie, I’m home!”

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about being early today.” Irene called out from the kitchen when she heard the front door being locked.

“Nope!” Seulgi padded over and peered over Irene’s shoulders. “The soup smells really good, Hyun! Do you need help?” 

“Sure but go put your apron on. You are  _ not  _ staining another shirt.” Irene raised her brow at Seulgi and the latter smiled sheepishly while fetching her apron. Seulgi had managed to stain most of her shirts because she kept wiping her hands on them while helping out in the kitchen. Removing the food stains had been a nightmare for Irene and it didn’t take long before they went shopping for matching aprons. 

\---

“Why are you always rolling your eye at me?”

“Why are you two always so insufferable??”

“Deal with it.” 

\---

“We can probably have dinner like this this whole week,” Seulgi grinned as she cleaned the kitchen when they were done with dinner.

“Yeah?” Irene stretched and made her way to the couch, picking up a small basket of yarn along the way.

“Yeah! We’re not allowed to stay late there because the area isn’t safe apparently. You should come into the office and wait for us to finish on Wednesday.” 

“Is that even allowed?”

“Yoona said to pretend to be our new boss or something and walk in. It’ll be fine. Or just give me a call and I’ll come get you.”

Seulgi booted up her game console and settled on the couch next to Irene. Her girlfriend was trying to learn how to knit because she thought it would be fun to knit them scarfs for winter that year. It was a slow process but from what Seulgi observed, she was slowing getting the hang of it and was progressing well. 

Irene looked up from her project when she heard the startup sounds of the game console. “Which game are you playing today? Can you play the one with the androids?”

“Sure! Wait...which one? I have two games about androids.” 

“That one with the short haired girl. You know..the one with the button down shirt you like  _ so  _ much.”

“Are you jealous?” Seulgi teased when she caught Irene’s tone changed.

“Me? Jealous of a fictional character? Please.” Irene smirked before continuing, “I will kill her the first chance I get if I ever played this game.”

“Yeah right.” Seulgi smiled smugly. Just the day before Irene was making a big fuss when Seulgi accidentally killed the character while trying to navigate their way across a busy highway on foot. Irene had demanded that Seulgi replay the chapter because it was so sad. “You like her as much as I do.” 

“Perhaps so.” Irene rolled her eyes and nudged Seulgi to hurry up. She was getting invested in the game’s story, she needed to know what would happen next. It was like watching a drama, almost. Seulgi was more than happy to oblige, it was rare that Irene was  _ that  _ interested in her video games.

***

When Irene arrived at the client’s office, she wasn’t sure what to make of the place. She was just as confused as Seulgi was a couple of days back. It looked exactly like a bank but that must not be right, Seulgi mentioned that they were some kind of car dealer. She would just have to ask her girlfriend about it later when they meet. Irene saw that they were already lowering the shutters of the front door and walked quickly towards it. There was probably no need to call Seulgi and disrupt her work, she could just waltz right in.

Or so she thought.

Ducking under the half drawn shutters, she stood upright and gathered herself before looking for somebody to ask where the group of consultants were at. She was about to walk towards the counters when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

***

A high-pitched scream echoed throughout the client’s office, catching everybody by surprised. Seulgi looked up from her laptop and bolted through the door immediately. She knew that scream anywhere - she recently played a horror game and her girlfriend had screamed at almost every jumpscare the game threw at them, even though Irene was already hiding Seulgi’s shoulder from the very beginning.

“Where is she going?” Seohyun asked when Seulgi disappeared from sight.

“That was Irene, probably..”

“Oh.” Seohyun nodded and went back to work as if nothing had happened.

Seulgi found Irene by the main entrance with the security guard who seemed to be apologising profusely for scaring her just now. She chuckled to herself and jogged towards the scene after seeing that Irene’s face had coloured slightly, probably a little embarrassed for screaming earlier.

“Ms Bae?” Seulgi tried not to laugh when Irene jumped slightly at her voice. “Jessica did mention you were going to visit us today. This way please. She’s with us, new manager.” she added the last bit quickly when she saw that the guard was a little confused.

“You okay?” Seulgi asked as she looped an arm around Irene’s shoulders once they were in the corridor that lead to the conference room.

“I’m alright. You didn’t tell me they had guns here.”

“We were shocked, too, on the first day. He brought the gun with him when he came to tell us it was time go pack up. Yoona and Seohyun were not affected though. Here we are, Ms Bae.” Seulgi grinned cheekily as she opened the conference room door and ushered Irene in. 

The team of dumb dumbs greeted Irene before resuming their work. Irene brought out her laptop to do some work as well while waiting for them to finish - it didn’t seem professional to just be sitting there scrolling her phone. 

—-

“That’s it? That’s ‘the scream’?”

“Yeah, what else did you think it was?”

Yerim shrugged at her mother’s question. She never knew where the stories were headed to and while she had not expected it to go the way it went, she should’ve expected it - her mothers were really just two dumb dumbs after all, despite Irene’s protests that she was not part of the team.

Seulgi was about to say something when they heard keys jiggling on the other side of the door. Eyes widened, Seulgi pointed towards the study table where their daughter should be at and Yerim sprinted towards it, trying to put up an act that she had been revising while Seulgi went to get the door and helped Irene with the groceries.

“Hey, Hyun. How was shopping?”

“It was great! There was a sale happening for the fabric softeners so I got us a few bottles to spare!” 

Seulgi chuckled at her wife’s love for fabric softeners even after all these years. Irene made her way into the house to put away the groceries when she saw Yerim studying diligently. 

Nodding approvingly, she asked, “So, what story did your mother tell you while I was out?”

Yerim put her book down slowly, eyes searching for Seulgi’s in a quiet cry for help. But when she saw that Seulgi was facepalming behind Irene, she knew there was no point in denying it. “H-how did you know?”

“Your book is upside down.” Irene raised a brow and smirked.

“Damn.” Both Seulgi and Yerim cursed under their breath but Irene caught it and burst laughing.

“What am I going to do with you two?”

—-

 

END


End file.
